BNB Developers Sunset Beacon Chain Tokens
The developers of Binance's BNB Smart Chain want to merge the two BNB Beacon Chain (BEP-2) and BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20) chain structures into a single blockchain.
According to the January 8 announcement, users are “strongly recommended” to transfer their BEP-2 and BEP-8 (mini BEP-2 tokens) to the BEP-20 chain, which will maintain assets at a 1:1 ratio. The transfer can be done through centralized and decentralized exchanges, or through BNB Chain Wallet and other self-contained wallets. The estimated deadline for BNB Chain Fusion has been changed to April 2024.
Users who do not link their property by the deadline can still do so using the legacy feature. That said, users will have to wait up to seven days to retrieve their BEP-2 assets post-conflict, as the recovery feature has no user interface, just a command-line prompt.
Additionally, developers have warned that BEP-2 tokens issued without on-chain support will not be eligible for recovery after the merger.
“Failure to establish cross-chain functionality for these tokens before the BNB Beacon Chain is destroyed will lead to irreversible losses, with no chance of recovery. Actively participating in this process is essential for the protection of your assets.”
Binance launched its BNB (BNB) token in July 2017. BNB BEP-2 is currently used as gas payments to power ecosystem transactions, while BEP-20 tokens have the same smart contract functionality as ERC-20 tokens.
“With BSC's rapid evolution, the beacon chain has become a burden,” the developers wrote, noting that the current dual-chain structure requires constant bridging of the development cycle and exposes BNB to security vulnerabilities.
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