The highly anticipated Pascal hardfork of BNB Chain is scheduled to go live on March 20, 2025, bringing enhanced Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility and improved flexibility for gasless transactions and smart contracts. This upgrade marks the beginning of a series of enhancements, with additional hardforks planned for April and June 2025 to further improve network speed.
What to Expect from the Pascal Hardfork
The latest BNB Chain upgrade, originally tested on the testnet in February 2025, was initially expected to roll out by mid-March. However, the development team has now confirmed the official activation date as March 20, 2025.
A key feature of this update is the integration of the EIP-7702 improvement proposal, which allows externally owned accounts (EOA) to execute smart contract code. This enhancement enables:
- Gasless transactions
- Batch approvals and swaps
- Wallets to function as smart contracts
By adopting a model similar to Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, Pascal hardfork aims to streamline decentralized applications (dApps), making Web3 adoption more accessible by allowing dApps to cover gas fees on behalf of users.
Preparing for the Pascal Hardfork
Before the Pascal hardfork goes live, node operators, validators, exchanges, infrastructure providers, and developers must update their systems. Failure to do so could result in synchronization issues after the network upgrade.
What’s Next? Lorentz and Maxwell Hardforks
The Pascal upgrade is just the beginning of a broader plan to enhance BNB Chain’s speed and efficiency. Two additional hardforks are scheduled for later in 2025:
- Lorentz Hardfork (April 2025): Block times will be reduced to 1.5 seconds.
- Maxwell Hardfork (June 2025): Transaction finality will drop to 0.75 seconds or lower.
These upgrades align with BNB Chain’s strategy to strengthen DeFi and AI integration, reinforcing Binance’s ecosystem. The introduction of the DeFAI (Decentralized Finance & AI) framework will bring innovations like AI-powered cross-chain analysis, yield optimization, and liquidity management.
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