BNB Beacon Chain’s Zhangheng Hard Fork — Here’s What You Need To Know
BNB Beacon Chain, the network that handles the staking and governance layer of the BNB ecosystem is all set to undergo a major hard fork in a few days. This hard fork named “Zhangheng” is a software upgrade aimed at vastly improving its network security and functionalities as per their official statement. The hard fork is set to occur on July 19, 2023, at 06:00 UTC when the network hits block height 328,088,888.
There are two key aspects that are in focus during this hard fork -
- Implementation of the BEP-255 proposal
- Bug Fix for rouge key attacks
As it is a hard fork-based software upgrade, the changes introduced in the Zhangheng upgrade become a permanent part of the blockchain’s operation mechanisms. As no new tokens will be issued following the hard fork, it won’t affect any end users who hold BNB tokens in cold wallets and do trading activities in BNB-supported centralised exchanges.
But, as an infrastructure-focused update, it will affect validators and node operators who are responsible for the validation of transactions performed in the network. The node operators who validate transactions in the BNB network have been requested to update their software to V0.10.16. The network recommends at least two-thirds of the node operators upgrade to the newer version of software well in advance of the hard fork to ensure a smooth transition. Failure to upgrade to the newer version of the software in time will prevent the node from syncing with upgraded BNB Beacon Chain peer/validator nodes and will prevent them from connecting or sending new transactions.
BEP-255/Binance Enhancement Proposal 255
This proposal is aimed at improving the BNB chain’s security capabilities by implementing an innovative mechanism called “on-chain asset reconciliation”. The team behind BEP-255 feels that although some level of security enhancements have been made to improve cross-chain security, such as BEP171, the security of assets on the BNB Beacon Chain itself should also be guaranteed to prevent events similar to the bridge exploit that occurred on October 2022.
There are two features introduced as part of BEP-255 namely -
- Asset Reconciliation
- Halt on Reconciliation Error
Asset Reconciliation — User balance changes will be monitored on each block whenever a new transaction is recorded in each block. The reconciliation is performed by comparing if the balance changes and token supply changes are equal and when the balance data doesn’t match or shows any discrepancies, a reconciliation error will be raised causing the network to go into panic mode.
Halt on Reconciliation Error — when the network enters panic mode from the reconciliation error, the BEP-255 software upgrade allows the network to halt the production of new blocks in the network. This will impact the downstream services such as bridges, withdrawals and deposits on exchanges.
While halting new block production is an extreme action with far-reaching consequences, the core team behind BNB believes that this is necessary to protect the chain and its users from greater harm. When such an error occurs, to resume regular activities a new hard fork will be implemented in which the cause of errors will be identified and addressed properly to prevent similar incidents from recurring once again. The core team will work with community members to investigate and resolve such errors as soon as possible so that the validators and node operators can resume the operations of the blockchain network and downstream services be restored to normal activities.
Bug Fix for Rogue Key Attacks
The rogue key attack is an attack that happens when a malicious actor (hackers/phishing attackers) generates a valid aggregate signature for transactions using stolen private keys or private keys of crypto wallets without the knowledge of the owner of the wallets. To prevent the occurrence of such attacks, this hard fork will clear all current vote addresses in the BNB network and validators must add their vote addresses once again.
Additionally, this hard fork is expected to boost the BNB chain’s capabilities in handling more complex business rules and logic. Overall, the BNB beacon chain seems all set to upgrade its security features and operational capacity in a bid to provide its users with a more secure and efficient future.
