Mandatory Upgrade and Hard Fork FAQ Print

Modified on: Fri, 6 Oct, 2017 at 6:30 PM



What is a mandatory upgrade? A mandatory upgrade is when you are required to upgrade your software to a minimum version in order to stay on the PIVX network and correct chain. This is usually due to a software upgrade that will cause a hard fork, but sometimes is due to other factors like a software security concern.





What is a hard fork? A hard fork is an upgrade to PIVX that is not backwards compatible and would cause the blockchain to diverge. For example, PIVX Core v3.0 will allow usage of the zerocoin protocol, but clients on the old v2.3 software would not recognize these new blocks and reject them. More information can be found here





What happens if I don't upgrade before the deadline? If you are running an old version of PIVX during or after the fork, you will start recording blocks on the wrong chain. You will not be able to send piv or otherwise interact with the PIVX network and correct blockchain.





How do I get back on the right chain? Remediation for this problem involves upgrading your software, clearing your local cache, starting PIVX Core, and resyncing the chain. Follow these instructions starting at step 1 after the forcestart part





What happens if I tried to send or receive piv while I was on the wrong chain? Don't worry, your piv are not lost if you have your wallet.dat file. If you sent piv while on the wrong chain, your address still has those piv on the correct chain. If someone sent you piv, your address on the correct chain has those piv, your client just can't see them yet (assuming the sender is on the correct chain). To confirm piv did or did not send on the correct chain, check the destination address on the block explorer





What happens to the other chain? The other chain is only populated by clients on the old software, so it does not have enough users or nodes to survive and quickly stops working. A second chain only survives if the upgrade is highly contentious and the old software has significant support from users, miners/stakers, nodes, exchanges, and merchants. Popular examples are bitcoin cash forking from bitcoin and ethereum forking from ethereum classic.







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