Binance Chain First Hard Fork “Galileo” on 15 July

On Jul 7, 2019

The leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that the first major network upgrade for Binance Chain named “Galileo” is ready to roll out.

According to the announcement, the hard fork is scheduled to take place at block height 20,300,000, likely to happen on 7:00 AM (UTC) on 15 July.

Binance "Galileo" Hard fork Announcement — Binance “Galileo” Hard fork Announcement

A hard fork is a process in which the main chain is split into two chains to implement new technology or due to the ideological difference between the community.

All Binance chain node runners and validators must update their software to version 0.6.0 by 10 July. If a validator of full node runner unable to update the software result in failure of sync with the upgraded Binance chain.

Galileo Hardfork New Features

After the hard fork, Binance chain node software includes a provision to delist tokens form Binance DEx (Decentralized Exchange). The trading of a token or its trading pairs usually takes place because of low volumes. Delisting or removing some trading pairs will increase the liquidity stats of the exchange and reduce congestion on Binance chain. The delisting process will be done by the community voting for Binance Chain Evolution Proposal (BEP).

The Galileo upgrade will also add a state sync selection enhancement features, as explained in BEP18. The new feature will allow newly joined users to sync to the latest block of the Binance chain without downloading the entire chain from block height zero. The new sync feature will allow the user to enter a block height number from where he/she wants to download the Binance chain. The node software will only download the blocks from the desired number by the user.

Another feature will include “maker” and “taker” in the trade matching engine as explained in BEP19. New orders from the current block will refer to as “Taker orders” and orders from previous blocks were referred to as “Maker orders”. This method will make the platform more user-friendly, according to Binance.

The next feature will allow users to time-lock tokens on the Binance chain. The time-lock feature allows the users to transfer the locked tokens to a new smart contract (code-controlled) escrow address. No withdrawal or transfers is allowed from the escrow address before the expiry of the lock period.

Another major security feature will allow users to generate and sign the transaction on an offline machine. The transactions are then sent to Binance chain from an online machine for verification.

As a BNB holder, what do I have to do?

If you use any exchanges which support BNB (such as Binance.com, BitMax or Gate.io), one of the wallets, or a hardware wallet (such as Ledger, Cool Wallet), you do not need to do anything unless your exchange or wallet service tells you to do so.