Binance's BNB Chain has slated two upgrades this month to bolster its operational efficiency and compatibility with other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains.
Scheduled for August 10 and 30, these hard forks aim to diminish the likelihood of malicious blockchain reorganisation.
The first upgrade, referred to as the Plato upgrade, has recently been executed.
This introduces BEP-126, an improvement proposal that brings forth a swift finality mechanism to the BNB Smart Chain.
The enhancement ensures users prompt access to accurate data from the latest locked-in block in the chain.
Arno Bauer, a senior solution architect at BNB Chain, clarified,
"Overall, BEP-126 aims to enhance blockchain security and efficiency on the BNB Smart Chain by introducing a fast finality mechanism."
What is Blockchain Finality?
"Finality" in blockchain means that once a transaction or block is recorded, it becomes unchangeable.
This is crucial for building trust in the system and preventing any double-spending, tampering, or fraud.
Implementing a rapid finality mechanism on the BNB Chain translates to a more secure environment for decentralised applications (dApps).
Additionally, it is projected to boost dApps' responsiveness and operational efficiency on the network.
The fast finality mechanism, ushered in by BEP-126, is realised through several stages.
- A validator initiates a block proposal, disseminating it to other validators.
- These validators employ their private keys to sign the block as a vote message.
- Subsequently, these validator votes coalesce into a pool and are consolidated if the parent block receives adequate votes.
Validators are bound to adhere rigorously to guidelines during their block-voting process.
For instance, publishing contradictory votes for the same height is prohibited.
A block is "justified" if its child block confirms it, and it's "finalised" if both it and its next block are confirmed.
The second upgrade, known as the Hertz hard fork, aims to synchronise the BNB Chain with the latest advancements of EVM blockchains.