[TUT] What is a Hard-Fork and How Will it Affect me?

[Delinquency]

A Hard Fork, What is That?

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Cryptocurrency developers rarely have to hard-fork their code. A hard-fork is a term that is described to apply changes to the block-chain network. Usually developers signify a certain block to apply a certain change to the code for modifications in how future blocks are found and stored in the block-chain.

• The Developer finds a system-intensive bug in the code, but rather than reverting all changes in the network, he decides to announce this change to the community after a certain block has been reached.
• The Developer picks 'x' block to apply changes to the block-chain network. At this time, all nodes are still functional and everything will still go the way it has been designed to.
• The Developer announces the hard-fork to the community and that they must update their clients or else all changes to the network after the certain block will become obsolete.

When the network reaches past the hard-fork block - Several things will happen:

• Updated Clients will continue to work, with the modified changes applied.
• Out of Date Clients will see a reduction in nodes, an extreme decrease in Mining Difficulty,a significant drop in connections.
• Out of Date Clients become an 'outlaw' to the updated nodes. They can no longer communicate to updated nodes. 
• Out-dated nodes will communicate on an 'outlaw' network that is not accepted by the newest nodes.

• Any changes applied to the out-of-date clients will not be accepted by the updated clients, and vice-versa. This is a fork in the block-chain, where the block-chain splits into two separate paths.
• If you commit changes on the old client, they will be accepted, but only to other 'outlaw' nodes. You must update your client to the version that is accepted by the hard-fork. Only then will your changes really take effect.