Hard fork or soft fork: what happens to your coins in a split?

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk. Always conduct your own research.A hard fork can split a blockchain in two, and you then hold the same number of coins on each side. A soft fork changes nothing in your wallet. How to tell the two apart, and what the German finance ministry has settled on the holding period for the new coins.A fork is a change to the rules by which the computers of a blockchain network reach agreement. The practical question behind it is this: do you get new coins out of it, or not? The answer hangs on a single difference. In a hard fork, a blockchain can split in two, with both running on separately afterwards, and you then hold the same number of coins on each side. In a soft fork, one blockchain remains, and nothing new appears in your wallet. This article explains both forms using two splits that actually happened, and answers the questions that come next: who credits you with the new coins, when the holding period starts and why an announced network upgrade brings you nothing at all in most cases. Fork means a split: how t...