Binance (BNB) Gears Up for Smart Chain Upgrade and Hard Fork on August 30: What Investors Should Note
- The Binance Chain (BSC) Hertz hard fork will neither introduce a new burn mechanism nor the concept of GasTip.
- The upcoming network upgrade will introduce some London and Berlin upgrades from Ethereum to BSC for DeFi compatibility.
The leading cryptocurrency exchange by daily traded volume and registered users, Binance, has announced that it will undertake its second hard fork for the BSC mainnet on Wednesday, August 30. According to the cryptocurrency exchange, the BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) network upgrade and hard fork will take place at block height of 31,302,048, which is approximately at August 30 07:30 UTC. As a result, the exchange announced that deposits and withdrawals of tokens on BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) will be suspended during the network upgrade.
The company added that it will inform the users of the resumption of services pertaining to BEP20 following a successful network upgrade. However, Binance highlighted that trading of tokens available on BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) will not be affected during the network upgrade and hard fork.
#Binance will support the #BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) network upgrade and hard fork.
— Binance (@binance) August 28, 2023
Closer Look At Binance Smart Chain Network Upgrades
Binance has continued to showcase its long-term commitment to the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain technology despite the prolonged bear market that began in early 2022. In a bid to ensure multi-chain compatibility in the future, Binance has continued to enhance its mainnet BSC network. Earlier this month, Binance announced a successful network upgrade through the Plato hard fork. Notably, the Plato hard fork introduced the second part of the fast finality mechanism through BEP-126.
With the Hertz hard fork, the BSC mainnet is expected to become compatible with the Ethereum network, thus enabling DeFi developers to seamlessly scale on desired chains. Some of the compatible ports with the BSC network include BEP-225, BEP-229, BEP-230, BEP-231 for the Berlin Upgrade and BEP-227, BEP-226, BEP-228, BEP-212 for the London hard fork.
Binance highlighted that the Hertz hard fork will not be introducing a new BNB burn mechanism or changing the concept of GasTip. Instead, Wednesday’s upgrade will introduce new transaction types through AccessList and DynamicFee(1559) on BEP-229, BEP-231, and BEP-226. Additionally, the Hertz hard fork will introduce changes to gas metering on BEP-225, BEP-230, and BEP-212. Most importantly, the Hertz hard fork will introduce restrictions on smart contracts deployment starting with 0xEF on BEP-228.
“This hard-fork release is a significant advancement for the BSC community. We encourage all validators, node operators, developers, and users to review the detailed specifications, test in their environments, and prepare for the upcoming forks,” Binance noted.
Market Implications
The Hertz hard fork on the BSC network comes at a time when the BNB price has suffered significant losses following FUDs of possible Binance insolvency. According to the latest crypto market data, BNB price traded around $217 on Tuesday, up approximately 3 percent in the past seven days. Undeniably, the enhancement of BSC compatibility with Ethereum will significantly increase the overall demand for BNB, and thus improve its underlying value exponentially.
