Blocktrade policy on hard forks is an integral part of Blocktrade’s general Terms of Use, Blocktrade’s Rulebook (Annex I. of Blocktrade’s general Terms of Use) and other Blocktrade’s Policies, and other relevant legal frameworks of Blocktrade (hereinafter collectively: Ancillary Terms) and shall not be interpreted in isolation of aforementioned Ancillary Terms. This policy on hard forks elaborates in more detail the risks regarding the Ethereum protocol and blockchain technology (chapter 8. of Blocktrade’s general Terms of Use) and shall be deemed supplementary to Ancillary Terms, unless otherwise explicitly specified. 

Hard forks are chain splits, where several post-fork chains are created with different characteristics, which may or may not be backwards compatible. These are usually meant to be protocol upgrades. A large majority of consensus is achieved, and nodes immediately upgrade to the latest version of protocol software, and only the dominant blockchain remains active. 

Sometimes, however, the mining power is split between two or more post-fork competing chains, and it may not be immediately clear whether the secondary chain will be accepted by the market (foremost by the miners) in the long term.  

Depending on the market consensus prior to the fork, companies will treat any secondary chains as a stand-alone coin and will decide on its listing if and when the new protocol proves to be stable and independent of any developments around the fork itself. As a matter of policy, Companies do not commit to crediting forked coins to the original coin holders, but will try to do so. The most certain way to receive the forked cryptocurrency is to withdraw the original coins to a private wallet. 

Companies will disable deposits and withdrawals of the original coin immediately prior to the fork, and keep them disabled until deemed safe. Trading with the original coin remains unaffected. 

Please be advised that the network might be under heavy traffic before and around the fork, so transactions may be slow and/or expensive. In addition to other exclusions of liability as defined in these Terms, User acknowledges and agrees that Companies assume no liability for any failed deposits and/or withdrawals and or any kind of direct, indirect, incidental, consequential loss of funds or profits whatsoever resulting from fork-related network congestion or any other fork related scenario. User acknowledges, agrees and warrants that he has been warned of the potential risks involved by using the Services, Platform and Assets and other relevant technologies mentioned herein as well as that there may be other risks involved, which are not specified herein and that you fully accept them as your risks without Companies being liable for any kind of direct, indirect, incidental, consequential damages or losses of funds or profits whatsoever.