The BNB Beacon Chain was originally designed as a staking and governance layer to complement the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) by enhancing security and supporting decentralized exchanges (DEX).
However, with the development of BSC and changes in the blockchain landscape, including the retirement of order book-based DEX in BEP151, the BNB beacon chain has become increasingly redundant. It is connected to BSC via a cross-chain bridge, bringing development complexity and security vulnerabilities.
Therefore, there has been a strategic shift to migrate the functionality of the Beacon Chain to BSC and replace the Beacon Chain. This move is intended to simplify the network, improve efficiency, reduce security risks, and align the BNB Chain's architecture with current technological needs and future growth.
prerequisites
Starting four months before the first sunset hard fork.
For staking pools (e.g. Ankr, Binance Earn, Synclub):
Released a formal announcement outlining the discontinuation of support for staking on the BNB Beacon Chain.
For users using the Atomic Swap feature:
Broadcast a clear message to users via all available channels regarding the partial disabling of Atomic Swap functionality. This will include an explanation of:
Users can still withdraw their funds.
A potential impact on services such as cross-chain swaps (e.g. Thorswap) is that users will no longer be able to perform Atomic Swaps.
For users with BE2/BEP8 assets:
They need to transfer their BE2/BEP8 assets to BSC or other platforms through BEW or CEX.
For CEX and wallet providers:
We will notify CEX and wallet providers of the change in advance so that they can prepare effectively and support their users. CEX and wallets should notify their users of the deactivation of the BNB Beacon Chain.
For asset issuers on the BNB beacon chain:
Notify asset issuers of changes, identify feasible solutions, and allow asset issuers sufficient time to transfer assets to the balanced scorecard.
Phase 1: Stop asset issuance and move validator management and network governance to BSC
April 2024: BNB Beacon Chain - First Sunset Fork
Disable cryptocurrency issuance and minting
Disable BSC validator creation
April 2024: BNB Smart Chain-Feynman Hard Fork
Activate the validator creation function on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and adjust the voting power of each BNB to 300% as an incentive to ensure a smooth transition.
Enable and activate the governance module when migrating 15M BNB voting rights to BSC.
After the Feynman hard fork is implemented, it is necessary to:
Notify BSC validators that voting rights will be migrated from the beacon chain to BSC, providing the benefits of double BSC voting rights as an incentive.
It is recommended that BNB delegators withdraw their delegation from the beacon chain and reallocate it to BSC.
Phase 2: Disabling governance and delegation on the beacon chain
May 2024: BNB Beacon Chain Second Sunset Fork
Governance on the Beacon Chain will be disabled
All delegations on the beacon chain will be automatically canceled and all assets will be returned to the user's wallet
Users can no longer delegate or re-delegate on the beacon chain
Phase 3: Beacon chain retirement and balance proof generation
May 24: BNB Beacon Chain Final Sunset Fork
Disconnect the cross-chain communication between Beacon Chain and BSC
Stopping the BNB Beacon Chain
Archiving Beacon Chain Data
Generate a balance dump and publish it for community verification
Phase 4: Token Migration Application as an Escape Hatchery
June 2024: Token Migration Application
Set up a token migration application* to help users recover funds stranded on the beacon chain.
*limited
Assets eligible for migration to BSC must be bound to BSC assets in advance. These assets will be available 7 days after submitting the migration request.
reference:
Testnet schedule:
February 2024: First sunset fork on BNB Beacon Chain and Feynman hard fork on BNB Smart Chain
March 2024: Second and final Sunset fork on the BNB beacon chain
Related BEPs:
BEP-333 BNB Chain Fusion
BEP-294: BSC Native Staking
BEP-297: BSC Native Governance
BEP-299: Token Migration after BC Fusion