Most cryptocurrencies came as a result of forks (fork), and every day they become more and more. But there is a fundamental difference between a hard fork and a hard fork, which we will examine by example.
Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin. They took the source code of the first cryptocurrency as a basis, made a number of changes to it and launched a new blockchain from the first block.
Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin. The source code of bitcoin was also taken as a basis with some changes, but the new cryptocurrency was launched not from scratch, but from block 478559. Thus, the network “forked”, as a result of which the blockchain was divided into two independent chains. Both networks have the same transaction history up to block 478558, hence all BTC holders at the time of the hard fork are entitled to the same amount of BCH.
Today, almost no one uses the forks scheme. After all, hardfork allows you to quickly attract an audience and get a reasonable price for a coin. Therefore, the difference between concepts is erased. Increasingly, cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, or Litecoin Cash, are called forks.