what is a hard fork 
a blockchain hard fork is a change in programming that is incompatible with the old programming this essentially creates a new blockchain and cryptocurrency hard forks generally require all nodes or users who wish to stay on the new chain to upgrade to the latest version of the software hard forks may be initiated by developers as part of routine progress or maintenance on a blockchain they may also be created by a faction of the crypto community that wants to take a different direction with the blockchain 