There were many questions about the consequences of old wallets after the hard fork occurred. What happens to my wallet? Will I lose my $onions? What is a hard fork?
This article aims to clear things up and calm people down. Especially not technically versed people are nervous about such changes although there is no reason for this. Of course the general principle of creating backups for your wallet also applies here.
Back to the topic, what happens on a hard fork? The underlying code base changes and therefore the old wallets cannot process the blocks from the newer wallets, which could cause a chain split.
Planned DeepOnion Hard Fork
In the above screenshot there are two chains. The above one where the blocks are generated from the old wallets and the newer one from the wallets (> v1.6.0) with the new consensus rules. This chain split happens when not all wallets are upgraded in time. It's an unpleasant situation an therefore everyone should try to upgrade before the feature are activated.
On a perfect hard fork, there is no block 460 001 on the old chain, because everyone has upgraded in time.
Optimal Hard Fork without Chainsplit
What are the consequences for the user of not upgraded wallets?
There are no real consequences for the user. The $onions are safe, even if they are sent on the wrong chain. Actually the user have the same amount of $onions on both chains, but the ones on the old chain aren't supposed to have any value. Furthermore the old chain will not be maintained and not be available after a while.
Despite the nonexistent risks for your funds, it is also recommended to create backups of your private keys.
What's next?
Please help to maintain the new chain and upgrade your wallet.
https://deeponion.org/community/threads/deeponion-v-1-6-1-released-important-upgrade-mandatory-upgrade.33401/
If you have any problems, please ask in the DeepOnion community forum. There are many motivated, friendly and helpful people.
https://deeponion.org/community/forums/beginners-help.107/
I also published this article on the DeepOnion community forum
https://deeponion.org/community/threads/article-what-happens-to-my-onions-after-the-hard-fork.33906/
Great article, it's important to reassure people over common "fork phobias" related to loosing funds. If people for whatever reason don't want to (or are unable to) upgrade then can just take a chill pill instead :-)