BNB Chain to undergo major hard fork to address blockchain exploit risks

Key takeaways

• BNB Chain is set to undergo its ZhangHeng upgrade later this month.

• The upgrade will address blockchain exploit risks, and no new BNB tokens will be issued. 

BNB Chain to undergo a major hard fork later this month

BNB Chain, the blockchain of the Binance ecosystem, is set to undergo its “ZhangHeng” upgrade later this month.

According to the development team, the upgrade will massively improve security features for users.

The BNB team believes that network security remains a cause for concern within the cryptocurrency industry. The hard fork is set to take place on 19th July 2023. at 6:00 UTC.

In the Web3 ecosystem, hard forks are permanent changes in the way networks operate, and they are carried out via software upgrades. 

The hard fork will not result in the issuance of new BNB tokens. Furthermore, two-thirds of all BNB Chain validators will need to upgrade their nodes to process blocks once the upgrade is complete.

The hard fork will protect BNB Chain and its users

The network developers revealed in the BEP-255 proposal that user balance changes will be tracked in each block and reconciled to pinpoint issues. If there is a reconciliation error, the BNB Chain will enter a panic mode, and the blockchain will stop producing new blocks. 

The developers added that;

“If a reconciliation error occurs, the blockchain will stop producing new blocks, impacting downstream services such as bridges, deposits, and withdrawals on exchanges. This drastic action is necessary to protect the chain and its users, so core developers and community members should investigate the issue as soon as possible.”

This latest cryptocurrency news comes following an interesting couple of months for BNB, the native coin of the Binance ecosystem. BNB’s performance has been erratic since the start of the year, with Binance facing multiple regulatory pressure globally.

BNB began the year trading at $245 per coin and rallied to its 2023 high of $354. However, BNB has lost more than 30% of its value over the past 30 days, thanks to its regulatory challenges in the United States and Europe.

At press time, the price of BNB stands at $246 per coin, down by less than 1% over the last 24 hours.