BNB beacon chain testnet upgrade to go live in January

BNB beacon chain testnet is set to undergo a hard fork upgrade dubbed Einstein next week. It requires all node operators to update their software before the process begins.

Einstein upgrade to go live in January

The largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance has announced the latest upgrade on the testnet of its blockchain protocol, BNB Beacon Chain.

The Einstein upgrade is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 2, 2022, at 3 am (UTC) and Jan 12, 2023, at 3 am (UTC). According to the announcement posted by BNB Chain, the hard fork upgrade will commence at block heights 34,587,202 and 34,963,303. It will require all node operators to update their software version to v0.10.4 before the process starts.

The testnet upgrade will bring a slew of changes to the network, including the introduction of a new staking model. With the Einstein upgrade, any BNB holder can stake their coins to become validators or delegators by entrusting their tokens to credible validators.

In addition, BNB stakers will be given the right to decide on proposals or developments in the ecosystem, making the network more community-oriented.

The blockchain protocol has been working on both testnet and mainnet versions of its product since the beginning of the last quarter. Last October, the BNB chain performed a hard fork upgrade to fix a bug that cost the platform more than $100 million in BNB tokens.

Recent BNB Smart Chain news

Meanwhile, the BNB beacon chain has been under scrutiny recently. It was recently reported that 22 million BNB tokens were credited into the fourth-largest BNB wallet without a transaction record of the deposited funds. This raised eyebrows within the crypto community, with some analysts questioning the authenticity of the Beacon chain. 

At the time of writing, BNB is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization ($39.2 billion). The price of BNB is hovering around $245.5.