Forks and Internal Conflicts: From Idealism to Technical Divergence

Bitcoin was conceived as a network without leaders, based on distributed consensus and immutable rules. However, that same openness, along with the absence of central authority, has led to inevitable internal conflicts. Throughout its evolution, the ecosystem has experienced forks that reflect both technical and ideological disagreements about the project's future direction.

What is a Fork?

A fork is a modification of the protocol or source code that generates a division in the blockchain. It can take two main forms:

• Soft fork: changes compatible with previous versions; non-updated nodes can still operate, but with limited functions.

• Hard fork: changes incompatible with previous versions; if there is no total consensus, a new chain may emerge that continues with different rules.

In the context of Bitcoin, forks are visible expressions of disagreement on aspects such as scalability, governance, or fidelity to the original design.

For beginners, a fork is like an update that splits the path.