BNB Beacon Chain, Binance’s blockchain ecosystem, is expected to undergo a hard fork upgrade scheduled on July 19 at 6:00 UTC, with enhanced security features for users.
The hard fork dubbed “ZhangHeng”, named after a Chinese scientist, will occur at block 328,088,888, the official advertisement on July 12, he noted. A hard fork is a software protocol change that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, or vice versa.
While the update is primarily focused on improving overall security, it won’t have a direct impact on most users, he said.
“If you are using any exchange that supports BNB, no action is required on your part unless you are notified to do so by your exchange or wallet service.”
However, full node operators on the mainnet must update their software version to v0.10.16 before reaching the height of the hard fork block. “If you do not update your software on time, your node will not sync with the updated BNB Beacon Chain peer/validator nodes. You will not be able to connect or send transactions,” he added.
Also, there will be no issuance of new BNB tokens, and two-thirds of all BNB Chain validators are required to upgrade their nodes for a smooth transition during the hard fork.
Enhanced security and functionality
The project announced two major security changes in the update. The developers noted that the update will introduce BEP-255, which proposes on-chain asset reconciliation in the BNB Beacon Chain to improve security.
BEP-255 will track user balance changes in each block and reconcile them to identify problems. “When there are reconciliation errors, the blockchain will panic and stop producing new blocks,” the update said.
Another security enhancement will include a bug fix that would address the vulnerability called ‘Rogue Key Attack’, which could compromise the fix of the network’s Fast Finality mechanism.
To fix the bug, all existing voting addresses will be removed when the hard fork height is reached, allowing validators to re-add voting addresses.
“Although some improvements have been made to improve cross-chain security, such as BEP171, the security of assets on the BNB Beacon Chain must also be ensured, especially after the bridge is exploited,” the developers wrote in a statement. GitHub mail.
