Staking basics

Binance Smart Chain's "Luban" Upgrade

Zainab Saberi

Apr 12, 2023 • 5 min read

The Binance Smart Chain (BSC), known as the "Build 'N' Build" Chain, underwent a hard fork on June 15th, 2023. This was a significant event in the blockchain's timeline, called the BNB Luban Upgrade.

The Luban upgrade, named after a legendary figure in ancient China, was designed to enhance the BNB Chain's performance and security, thus attracting more investors and users to the BNB ecosystem.

Introduction to Binance Smart Chain & Luban upgrade

The Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is a blockchain network known for its speed, efficiency, and compatibility with the Ethereum network. BSC users, particularly those holding the network's native token BNB, can vote on network changes and pay transaction fees. The BNB Luban Upgrade was highly anticipated in the BSC's evolution. It involved a hard fork that introduced new business rules and logic to the network, making it faster and more secure for users.

Also Read: What is Smart Contracts

What is Luban Upgrade

The BNB Luban Upgrade is a hard fork on the Binance Smart Chain that introduced three Binance Evolution Proposals (BEPs) - BEP-126, BEP-174, and BEP-221. Each of these proposals aims to enhance the network's functionality and security:

BEP-126: This proposal introduces a "Fast Finality" mechanism, which finalizes a block on BSC such that it can never be reversed. This mechanism is expected to reduce the chance of chain re-organization and stabilize the block production further.
BEP-174: This is a "Cross Chain Relayer Management" proposal to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge. Since attacks on bridges posed significant security threats in the crypto sector in 2022, this proposal is a critical solution to enhance security.
BEP-221: Also known as the "CometBFT Light Block Validation" proposal, BEP-221 aims to add a new contract to blockchains using CometBFT technology. This contract helps verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains, enabling data transfer between those blockchains and the BNB Chain.

Benefits of the Luban upgrade

The BNB Luban Upgrade brought several benefits to the Binance Smart Chain. First, it introduced new business rules and logic changes to the network, enabling it to handle a wider range of transactions and operations more efficiently.

The upgrade also improved the network's speed and security, making it more attractive to investors and users. Implementing the "Fast Finality" mechanism via BEP-126 greatly reduced the possibility of chain reorganization by malicious actors, enhancing the network's stability.

BEP-174 addressed critical security issues that plagued the crypto sector in 2022 by introducing a new governance proposal type that managed whitelisted relayers, thus significantly improving the security of the BSC Bridge.

Finally, BEP-221 added a new contract to the network that helps verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains, enabling data transfer between these blockchains and the BNB Chain.

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How to use Luban on Binance Smart Chain

Regular users who hold BNB on exchanges like Binance, BitMax, or Gate or in wallets like Ledger or Metamask will only have to take action if notified by the exchanges or wallets. The BNB Luban Upgrade has occurred seamlessly in the background, and users haven’t experienced any noticeable changes.

However, the BNB Luban Upgrade required specific action for full node operators. Operators needed to switch to software version v0.10.14 before the upgrade. The upgrade process involves downloading the new v0.10.14 binary and replacing the previous version, downloading the new config file app. tool to replace the previous one, increasing the open file limit to 65535, and stopping and restarting the BNB chain process with v0.10.142.

If a full node operator failed to upgrade their software in time, their node will not sync with the upgraded BNB Chain peer/validator nodes, resulting in an inability to connect or send transactions. However, a recovery process is available, which involves downloading a state recovery tool, backing up the home directory, and running specific commands.

Luban and the future of Binance Smart Chain

The BNB Luban Upgrade represents a significant step forward for the BNB Chain. It introduces three main Binance Smart Chain Evolution Proposals (BEPs): BEP-126, BEP-174, and BEP-221.

BEP-126, also known as the "fast finality mechanism," will make it impossible for a block to be reversed once it's finalized on the network, reducing the possibility of chain reorganization by bad actors and stabilizing block production further. However, the full functionality of Fast Finality will not be activated until a later upgrade called "Plato."

BEP-174, titled "Cross Chain Relayer Management," is designed to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge, a critical aspect considering that bridge attacks were the biggest security threat in the crypto sector in 2021. This proposal aims to introduce a new way to manage Relayer Manager public keys stored in the Genesis contract on the BSC.

Finally, BEP-221, known as the "CometBFT Light Block Validation" proposal, introduces a system that will add a new contract to networks that use CometBFT technology. This contract will help verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains and enable data transfer between those blockchains, such as the storage-focused BNB Greenfield and the BNB Chain.

Together, these enhancements from the BNB Luban Upgrade aim to make the BNB Chain faster, more secure, and more versatile. They could attract more investors and users to the BNB Chain ecosystem, providing even better features and contributing toward the value proposition of the BNB token.

Also Read: How to Add Matic to Metamask

Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

How does the Luban upgrade improve the security of the Binance Smart Chain?

The Luban upgrade enhances the security of the BSC through BEP-174 and BEP-126. BEP-174 introduces a "Cross Chain Relayer Management," aiming to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge. This is important as attacks on bridges have been a significant security threat in the crypto sector. This proposal introduces "managers" for relayers selected by on-chain governance. These managers would be responsible for managing the registration of individual relayers, making it easy to remove or add any relayer during a potential crisis.

BEP-126 introduces the “Fast Finality” mechanism, which makes it impossible for a block to be reversed once it is finalized on the network. This reduces the possibility of a chain reorganization by bad actors, thus enhancing security.

2. How does the Luban upgrade improve the performance of the Binance Smart Chain?

The Luban upgrade enhances the performance of the BSC primarily through the "Fast Finality" mechanism introduced by BEP-126. This mechanism ensures that a block, once finalized, cannot be reversed. This provides a more stable and predictable transaction environment and reduces the possibility of chain reorganization, thus improving the network's performance.

3. How does the Luban upgrade benefit developers and users of Binance Smart Chain?

BEP-221, part of the Luban upgrade, introduces the "CometBFT Light Block Validation" system. This system proposes adding a new contract to blockchains that use CometBFT technology. This contract verifies specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains and enables data transfer between those blockchains, such as the storage-focused BNB Greenfield and the BNB Chain. This feature can benefit developers by allowing more interaction and data exchange between blockchains.

For users, notably, the Luban upgrade only requires action from those who hold BNB on exchanges or in wallets if notified by their service providers. It's also expected that network improvements like the Luban upgrade attract more users and investors to blockchain ecosystems, as they allow developers to provide better features. BNB Chain utilizes the BNB token for users to pay fees with and vote on network changes – meaning such upgrades could contribute toward the value proposition for BNB in the future.

Full node operators followed specific upgrade instructions before the Luban upgrade occurred to avoid any disruption in their service.