Lorentz Hard Fork - BSC FAQs

What is the Lorentz upgrade and what does it aim to improve?¶

The Lorentz upgrade is a major performance-focused hard fork on BNB Smart Chain (BSC), designed primarily to reduce block times and enhance validator synchronization. It sets the stage for sub-second block intervals and positions BNB Chain for real-time and AI-powered decentralized applications.

How does the Lorentz upgrade affect transaction finality and network security? Are there any trade-offs?¶

The Lorentz upgrade improves block speed but does not change BNB Chain’s core security model. However, faster block times (1.5s and eventually 0.75s) make the network more sensitive to latency:

Trade-off: If block propagation is delayed and takes a significant portion of the block time, consensus stability can be impacted.
Mitigation: To address this, BNB Chain is optimizing validator communication, messaging protocols, and overall network latency.

How was validator synchronization improved in this upgrade?¶

Validator synchronization is now more efficient thanks to two key upgrades:

Block Fetching via bsc/2 Protocol
Nodes can now request a range of recent blocks in a single round trip.
This replaces the slower, multi-step eth/68 process, reducing latency.
Enhanced Validator Network
Validators can now register public NodeIDs on-chain via a system contract.
This enables validators to form a direct, private communication mesh.
Crucial messages like blocks and votes now bypass slower public hops.

Together, these upgrades minimize synchronization delays and ensure robust consensus performance even with faster block times.

What metrics are being used to evaluate the success of the Lorentz upgrade?¶

The core success metrics include:

Block time stability at 1.5 seconds (targeting 0.75s in future)
No degradation in network throughput
Stable consensus and validator performance

These metrics help ensure performance gains do not come at the cost of network reliability.

With block times dropping to 1.5 seconds (and eventually 0.75s), how does BNB Chain compare to Solana?¶

BNB Chain’s shorter block times and strong time-to-finality will make it competitive with high-performance chains like Solana. However, BNB Chain retains a key advantage:

EVM compatibility, which allows easier migration and development for projects familiar with Ethereum infrastructure.

This combination offers the speed of Solana and the flexibility of EVM.

How do these upgrades support AI-powered and real-time decentralized applications?¶

Lorentz (and the upcoming Maxwell upgrade) are foundational to BNB Chain’s “AI-First” strategy. Benefits include:

Faster confirmations for AI, gaming, and DeFi applications.
Lower latency, enabling high-frequency interactions and near-instant finality.
Improved data throughput, supporting AI models and real-time computations on-chain.

This positions BNB Chain to be the infrastructure layer for next-gen decentralized applications.

Will BNB Chain open-source more infrastructure changes or benchmarks?¶

Yes. All execution optimizations and consensus changes are:

Open-sourced
Publicly discussed in improvement proposals like BEP-520 and BEP-524

BNB Chain encourages transparency and community collaboration in its performance roadmap.

Still Have Questions?¶

Join the discussion or ask our team directly in the official BNB Chain Discord.