The Binance Smart Chain and the Bruno upgrade

Note: This blog is written by an external blogger. The views and opinions expressed within this post belong solely to the author.

Background

On November 30, 2021, at 08:00 a.m. UTC, the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network underwent one of the most extensive upgrades in its history. The hard fork is named the Bruno Upgrade v1.1.5 (or BEP-95 upgrade), and it implements a real-time burn mechanism for its native BNB token. As such, BSC proponents have been keen on comprehending what this update means for the project and the ecosystem it is trying to build.

BSC has over 2 million daily active members, making it one of the busiest cryptocurrency networks. A record-breaking 14.7 million transactions are projected to be processed in only 24 hours, putting the network on a whole new level. As it neared its all-time high on November 17th, the network experienced both positives and disadvantages. Full node synchronization is one of the most challenging difficulties encountered by the platform, and there have been initiatives to overcome it.

The hard fork release implemented by Binance is a real-time method for burning BNB coins from the BSC network supply. The approach tries to minimize the time it takes for complete node synchronization by 60 percent. The BEP-95 coin, which would be included in the update, was previously noted by Binance.

So what is the Bruno upgrade?

The Binance Smart Chain now supports BEP95, a protocol that burns 10% of every validator’s fees. 0.02-0.06 BNBs are now burnt in each block, according to statistics from Bscscan. Node voting determines the burn rate, which is now set to 10%. The gas fee collected in BNB tokens will be delivered to a dead address as a result of this transaction.

According to estimates, daily burn volumes range between 577 and 1728 BNB tokens. Based on linear interpolation, 15,000 Binance Coins might be burned every month at the current pace. As is obvious, the Bruno update creates a significant deflationary impetus for the BNB token, opening the road for a sustained rise in prices. 

The burning mechanism is comparable to that described in Ethereum Network’s EIP-1559. Since adopting the Ethereum Improvement Proposal in the London Hardfork, nearly 1 million ETH tokens have been burnt. This has fuelled a surge in Ethereum price.

Based on linear interpolation, 15,000 Binance Coins might be burned every month at the current pace. As is obvious, the Bruno update creates a significant deflationary impetus for the BNB token, opening the road for a sustained rise in prices.

The update also includes a stable version of the diffsync interface. Diff sync has been shown to speed up to full node synchronization by 60% to 70% in testing. As such, all nodes are encouraged to enable —diffsync by adding it to the starting command.

Lastly, the update also implements several bug fixes that further make the BSC network more efficient.

Conclusion

Forks are used to implement new software upgrades on the BSC blockchain network. Forks are classified as soft or hard. Soft forks are used to strengthen network regulations, whereas hard forks are used to update the entire network. 

Nonetheless, BSC has emerged as one of the most active chains. It recently passed the two-million-daily-active-addresses milestone. The network’s native currency, BNB, also saw a small spike in prices following the update and currently is the third-largest cryptocurrency.