Small-scale blockchains, or the creation of alternative chains that are linked to the original chain, occur constantly due to the way the blockchain works. These "natural" races disappear by themselves as the correct chain of blocks builds on. On the other hand, in some special cases, the chains are formed deliberately, and are divided into soft and hard. Soft forks, or soft computing, arise when network participants voluntarily start using a new version of the software or a managed network algorithm. The software is upgraded earlier, and then, in the exact defined block, you create a stack accepted by all network users.
Hard forks, or hard disks, arise when there is no consensus. So, one part of the network still wants to use the old algorithm, while the other is using a modified algorithm. If users want a new system enough, they install an alternative version of the blockchain software, which generates an account on an existing blockchain on a precisely defined block. Users who remain in the original algorithm no longer participate in changes in the new blockchain, nor do they change from the perspective of their bitcoin wallets. On the other hand, users who have deliberately adopted a new algorithm have a new system, but at the same time all transactions from the old system were recorded in the system at the same time. Two of the most famous hard-core are bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. Both came into being last year from the original bitcoin blockchain (the so-called bitcoin core).