What does forking Bitcoin involve?

Forking Bitcoin refers to the process of creating a new cryptocurrency that diverges from the original blockchain. This occurs when there is a significant change in the protocol rules, leading to a split in the blockchain. When a fork happens, the new version of the blockchain contains different rules or features compared to the original, often resulting in the creation of a separate cryptocurrency with its own characteristics.

For example, when Bitcoin Cash was created from a fork of Bitcoin, it introduced changes such as an increased block size limit to allow for more transactions to be processed in each block. The original blockchain, Bitcoin, continues to operate independently, and both cryptocurrencies exist simultaneously after the fork.

The other options do not accurately describe forking. Increasing transaction fees pertains to network economics rather than a structural change to the blockchain. Storing Bitcoin securely involves wallet management, which is unrelated to the concept of forking. Upgrading mining hardware relates to the performance and efficiency of mining on the network but does not involve the creation of a new blockchain or cryptocurrency.