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means that every node in the network will only Examples of Soft Forks
accept the new regulations and ignore any
1. Segregated Witness
nodes trying to run an old software version.
The new rule set can be changed (hard forks)
Segregated Witness is the name of August
or tweaked (soft forks) in smaller incremental
1st’s soft fork. This soft fork makes it so that
amounts, just like anyone could do in typical
transactions will not be included in blocks
software development. It is why old software
unless they have the new data added to them.
versions are deprecated; they become
This extra bit of data is called a “witness” and
outdated and are no longer updated. However,
comes with each transaction. If most miners
if most nodes adopt the new rule changes,
are signaling for SegWit (as of August 1st),
everything will stay the same, and changes will then nodes that do not signal for SegWit will
not be enforced. It is where it becomes more
probably be pushed out or ignored by the
controversial in terms of soft forks. If only a network as it moves forward with further
few people get behind the new knife, it is not
development. As with any change, you can
worth going through with the change. Most continue using the old software, but you risk
networks will ignore the division and continue
having your transactions rejected by some
with the new rules. nodes or miners on the network.

Soft forks are not free. The people 2. SegWit2x
supporting them, like most miners, must
commit to keeping the nodes that they SegWit2x is another soft fork that was
operate connected to the network running planned and created after the first SegWit
for it to work as planned. If all miners stop soft fork. The project’s goal is to get a majority
using these nodes, then the soft fork will be of miners to signal support for SegWit to
unsuccessful, and everyone will be stuck with propose a second change that would also
network congestion and slower transactions break the 1MB block size limit on the Bitcoin
until most nodes have upgraded their blockchain and give it a two-megabyte block
software. In theory, soft forks can be more size with support. Since this hard fork was
challenging for any currency community to announced, there has been a lot of negative
support than hard forks (which is where hard backlash against it because many nodes and
forks happen). miners are in opposition to the change, so
for now, it seems unlikely that it will happen
User-activated soft forks (UASFs) are or be successful (below). Right now, it is still
a new method being developed to allow possible to use SegWit2x software on the
dynamic changes to protocol parameters network, but you cannot use newly mined
without waiting for consensus. The software transactions without signaling for this change.
developers can activate UASFs by using a soft
fork. This change requires 75% of all miners to Soft forks are a more stable change to
signal support on the main blockchain. While a blockchain’s protocol, whereas hard forks
this does not mean that a UASF is guaranteed can create problems for nodes that have not
to succeed, it does approve the developers upgraded or users who have not upgraded
to activate the feature. It is an alternative path their software. Soft forks are also a more
for the development team to make necessary sustainable way of implementing new changes
changes without receiving approval from all of to the software. If you look at different
the miners or node operators on the network. blockchain protocols like Ethereum, which
Some UASFs are very controversial, like recently faced scaling issues and hard-forked,
SegWit2x, which caused many problems and it is evident that soft forking is much less
drama when it was planned. problematic.

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