Hard fork refers to a drastic change to the protocols of a blockchain network that makes former invalid blocks as well as transactions valid, or vice-versa.
Simply speaking, a hard fork divides a single cryptocurrency into two resulting in the validation of blocks and transactions that were earlier deemed invalid or vice-versa.
Thus, it mandates that all developers upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software.
Developers or crypto community members can initiate forks if they are dissatisfied with functionalities provided by existing blockchain implementations.
Hard Forks can also be a way to crowdsource funding for new technology projects.
In a Hard Fork, only updated nodes are able to process transactions or add new blocks to the blockchain.
Hard Fork can impact a cryptocurrency’s price because it introduces critical changes to the blockchain, which often results in improving the fundamentals of a cryptocurrency.