Orphan blocks are an important concept in understanding blockchain forks and the consensus mechanism used by blockchain networks. Here's an explanation of orphan blocks and their role in blockchain forks:

Forks are changes or updates to the underlying protocol of a blockchain network, resulting in the divergence of the blockchain into two or more separate paths. Hard forks and soft forks are two types of forks that differ in their approach to protocol upgrades and their impact on the network's consensus rules. Here's a comparison between hard forks and soft forks: