BNB Chain Activates Pasteur Upgrade On BSC Mainnet: Pre-Executed Blocks And Validator Security Fixes Take Effect
BNB Chain announced that it has activated the Pasteur hard fork on the BNB Smart Chain mainnet. The upgrade introduces three improvement proposals grouped under BEP-673, targeting security vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges and validator governance while optimizing block processing efficiency.
Mainnet nodes were required to run client version 1.7.7 prior to activation, and operators were advised to remove the [Eth] EnableBAL parameter from config.toml to ensure compatibility. Several command-line interface flags have also been deprecated or rendered inert, including options related to journal files, transaction pool overflow slots, and the fake-beacon family.
The Pasteur upgrade follows previous network optimizations that reduced block times to 0.45 seconds and stabilized performance at that pace. While earlier hard forks focused primarily on speed, Pasteur emphasizes utilizing existing capacity more fully and eliminating validator power retention mechanisms.
BEP-682 addresses a critical vulnerability in the bridge verification precompile at address 0x67, where duplicate validator signatures could previously be counted repeatedly toward the required threshold, potentially allowing cross-chain asset transfers to clear with fewer legitimate signers than mandated by protocol rules. BEP-695 standardizes post-rotation validator key management by ensuring retired consensus keys immediately lose administrative privileges, maintaining slash eviction status across key rotations, and closing a loophole in signature-based governance voting that permitted blacklisted addresses to bypass restrictions applicable to direct votes.
Performance Optimization and Builder Requirements
BEP-675 introduces the most significant structural change to block production by allowing builders to submit pre-executed blocks, eliminating the need for validators to rerun all transactions during the 450-millisecond block window. Under the previous architecture, both builders and validators independently executed the same transaction set, a redundancy that consumed approximately 125 milliseconds of the critical path and frequently resulted in blocks operating well below capacity.
Testnet benchmarks conducted on QANet, which mirrors mainnet’s cross-region validator topology, demonstrated that this optimization reduced validator processing time to 15 milliseconds. Throughput increased from 1,237 to 2,324 transactions per second while maintaining the existing gas limit and block interval, with average gas utilization improving from 46.35 million to 84.15 million per block.
The upgrade requires no migration for general developers or end users, who will benefit from increased block space availability during high-demand periods without experiencing changes to gas fees or daily operations. Block builders seeking to leverage the BEP-675 pathway must transition from fastnode to fullnode infrastructure, as they assume responsibility for producing fully executed blocks.
Legacy bidding mechanisms remain operational for those not immediately adopting the new flow. The BEP-675 initiative forms part of BNB Chain’s second-half 2026 roadmap, which targets doubling mainnet throughput as an intermediate step toward a long-term tenfold capacity improvement across the ecosystem.
Disclaimer
In line with the Trust Project guidelines, please note that the information provided on this page is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other form of advice. It is important to only invest what you can afford to lose and to seek independent financial advice if you have any doubts. For further information, we suggest referring to the terms and conditions as well as the help and support pages provided by the issuer or advertiser. MetaversePost is committed to accurate, unbiased reporting, but market conditions are subject to change without notice.
About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
More articles
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
