Hard Fork (hardfork): Cryptocurrency

Hard fork

A hard fork (or hardfork) is a permanent divergence in the blockchain, which occurs when non-upgraded nodes can’t validate blocks created by, (already), upgraded nodes that follow newer consensus rules. 

The Cryptocurrencies after hard fork share a transaction history up to a certain time and date. 

See also bitcoin wiki and this article to get more information about differences between soft forks and hard forks

The first intentional hard fork splitting bitcoin happened on 1 August 2017, resulting in the creation of Bitcoin Cash.

Other coin split created altcoins such as Bitcoin Gold or Bitcoin Private. Owner of bitcoins automatically gets the newly created coin via coin split so if you owned bitcoins during bitcoin hard fork coin split, you also own the new coin (eg. Bitcoin Cash). If the owner wants to claim his, it has to be implemented in the wallet.

Trezor Wallet implemented is a tools for Bitcoin Cash as well as for Bitcoin Gold(BCH,BTG) whereby to claim these coins for users who owned Bitcoin funds on addresses when these hard forks happened.

In November 2018, a hard-fork chain split of Bitcoin Cash occurred.

This hard-fork resulted in the creation of Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV.
See also :

• Claiming cryptocurrency after coin split
• How to split and send your Bitcoin Cash forks
• Coin split
• Fork
• Soft-Fork-(SoftFork)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Bitcoin Gold (BTG)

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Soft Fork (SoftFork): Cryptocurrency

Soft-Fork

A soft-Fork (softfork) is a change in the Cryptocurrency protocol from the previously valid blocks values and transactions are made invalid.

Old nodes will recognize new blocks as valid, unlike a Hard Fork, a soft fork can still work with older versions of the protocol changed.

If a Wallet wants to support new soft fork rules it has to be upgraded.

See also bitcoin wiki page.

• Introduction limiting 1MB for a block was done through a soft fork.
• The pay-to-script-hash function, enhances code without changing structure values was also successfully added through a soft fork.
• SegWit was implemented in Bitcoin protocol using a soft fork in BIP141.

Trezor started supporting SegWit in August 2017

See also this article for more information about differences between soft forks and hard forks.

 
UASF vs MASF
When a majority of Miners upgrade to enforce new rules, it is defined as miner-activated soft fork (MASF).

When full nodes coordinate to enforce new rules, without the support from miners, it is called a user-activated soft fork (UASF).

See also Fork, Hard fork, Coin split

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Non-Deterministic Wallet: Cryptocurrency

Non-Deterministic-Wallet

A Non-Deterministic-Wallet: defined cryptocurrency as a type of cryptocurrency wallet which generates its private keys randomly and independently.

Unlike a hierarchical deterministic wallet, a non-deterministic wallet requires a user to make backups periodically.

The number of users of non-deterministic wallets is currently declining, as people opt for the more modern hierarchical deterministic wallets, such as Mycelium or Trezor.

See also: Type of cryptocurrency wallets

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Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet: Cryptocurrency

Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet

A Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet, (or shortly HD wallet), is a modern type of Cryptocurrency-Wallet that derives Private-Keys from a Seed. 

The legacy of Non-Deterministic wallet and HD wallet combined resolves into flexibility for end-user with interoperability and enhanced privacy with one-time backup.

Trezor is one of the first Hierarchical-Deterministic-Wallets brought to the market.

See also: Address path, Non-deterministic wallet, Cryptocurrency standards

What are the advantages of HD wallets?

HD wallets solve problems of legacy cryptocurrency wallets which randomly generate private keys on the fly and require repeated backups; insanity!

HD wallets bring the possibility of deriving all the addresses (public and Private-Key pairs) from a single Recovery Seed.

This means an HD wallet needs only one backup.

The advantages of hierarchical deterministic wallets over standard cryptocurrency wallets are:

• Easy backups - if you control the recovery seed, you can generate the entire tree of children keys (public/private key pairs).
• Storing your private keys offline - possibility to derive the entire tree of public keys (addresses) from a parent public key without needing any private keys.
• Access controls - Hierarchical deterministic wallets are arranged in a tree formation. The owner of the master seed controls all assets in the wallet and can create whole branches of keypairs if he or she wants to let someone spend only part of the coins in the wallet.
• Accounting - The owner of the master seed can create public keys at any level of a wallet tree formation to let someone access the transaction history of a specific part of the wallet.

See also : BIP32, BIP44, BIP49

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Recovery-Seed: Cryptocurrency

Recovery seed

a RecoverySeed, (or shortly a seed), is a list of words in a specific order which store all the information needed to recover a wallet.

Keeping the recovery seed of private-key and safe is the key for long-term safety of the user's cryptocurrency funds.

 Also read -i.e.:Recovery Seed With Trezord

Cryptocurrency-Standards: Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency standards

This is an overview of cryptocurrency standards BIPs and SLIPs Cryptography that are relevant to the Trezor device or Trezor Wallet, meaning they are either already supported or their support is planned. The standards are organized into groups based on their common topic below.

Cryptography-Cryptocurrency

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of untrusted third parties.

Cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages and intercepting transactions.

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.

Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems.

The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.

Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is generally considered the first decentralized cryptocurrency.

Since the release of bitcoin, over 4,000 altcoins (alternative variants of bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies) have been created.

Trezor uses the most modern and sophisticated cryptographic protocols to protect your funds, transactions, communication, passwords and to back up your wallets.

See also: Elliptic-curve cryptography, Public-key cryptography

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