The BNB Chain testnet officially activated the Maxwell hard fork, marking a major milestone in its ongoing push toward faster, more scalable blockchain performance.
Author: Sahil Thakur
On May 26, the BNB Chain testnet officially activated the Maxwell hard fork, marking a major milestone in its ongoing push toward faster, more scalable blockchain performance. The upgrade went live at block height 5,255,2978 and introduces significant improvements across consensus, networking, and data propagation.
Maxwell brings three core upgrades under Binance Evolution Proposals (BEPs):
These changes aim to enhance speed, coordination, and efficiency — key pillars for supporting dApps, DeFi protocols, and real-time blockchain applications.
BNB Chain continues to push the limits on performance. Following the Lorentz fork’s reduction from 3s to 1.5s block times, Maxwell now halves it again to just 0.75 seconds.
This means:
This upgrade targets a smoother UX across the board, especially for time-sensitive applications like trading and gaming.
Shorter block intervals demand faster validator communication. BEP-563 tackles this by allowing validators to share NodeIDs via system contracts, improving peer-to-peer messaging.
This upgrade improves:
In fast-paced networks, missed validator messages can compromise liveness. BEP-563 ensures validators stay in sync under tighter block production windows.
The final major upgrade enhances how nodes request and share block data. With a more efficient message structure, block propagation becomes faster and more stable, even under heavy network loads.
This update:
Maxwell is more than just speed. It’s about preparing BNB Chain to handle the next generation of blockchain applications — ones that demand low-latency execution and resilient infrastructure.
Together, the updates aim to:
BNB Chain encourages developers and node operators to begin testing applications on the new testnet configuration. Early feedback will help fine-tune the mainnet deployment and ensure robust performance ahead of future upgrades.
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