List of bitcoin forks
Bitcoin forks are defined variantly as changes in the protocol of the bitcoin network or as the situations that occur "when two or more blocks have the same block height". A fork influences the validity of the rules. Forks are typically conducted in order to add new features to a blockchain, to reverse the effects of hacking or catastrophic bugs. Forks require consensus to be resolved or else a permanent split emerges. Forks of the client software. The following are forks of the software client for the bitcoin network: All three software clients attempt to increase  transaction capacity of the network. None achieved a majority of the hash power. Intended hard forks splitting the cryptocurrency. Hard forks splitting bitcoin (aka "split coins") are created via changes of the blockchain rules and sharing a transaction history with bitcoin up to a certain time and date. The first hard fork splitting bitcoin happened on 1 August 2017, resulting in the creation of Bitcoin Cash. The following is a list of notable hard forks splitting bitcoin by date and/or block: Intended soft forks splitting from the most-work block. Taproot. Taproot is an agreed soft fork in the transaction  format. The fork adds support for Schnorr signatures, and improves functionality of smart contracts and the Lightning Network. The fork was installed in November 2021. The upgrade adds privacy features. Taproot includes Bitcoin Improvement Proposal numbers BIP340, BIP341, BIP342. Advantages: Unintended hard forks. Two hard forks were created by "protocol change" definition: