With its significant trading volume, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, continues to support planned network upgrades and hard forks for the altcoins it lists. Most recently, Binance announced its support for the network upgrade and hard fork of Horizen (ZEN).
Support from Binance for Horizen (ZEN) Network Upgrade and Hard Fork
The leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced its support for the network upgrade and hard fork of Horizen, which is expected to take place on February 7 at around 3:00 PM local time or at block height 1,502,800.
Accordingly, Binance will temporarily suspend deposit and withdrawal services for tokens on the Horizen network, particularly for ZEN, starting from approximately 2:00 PM local time on February 7, in order to ensure the best user experience during the network upgrade and hard fork. Trading of tokens on the network will continue unaffected during this process.
Binance has stated that it will fulfill all technical requirements for all users and that deposit and withdrawal services for tokens on the Horizen network will be reopened once the upgraded network is deemed stable.
What are Network Upgrades and Hard Forks?
The concepts of a network upgrade and hard fork in an altcoin network refer to changes or improvements to the altcoin’s protocol. Altcoin Blockchain networks can evolve over time and add new features. These developments are usually made to make the network more secure, faster, or scalable.
Network upgrades typically involve updates that require all participants in the network to adapt. This means using a new version of the software or adapting to a specific protocol change. Network upgrades are often called soft forks, as they allow communication with non-updated old versions, but the proposed updated version offers better performance or security. A hard fork refers to a fundamental change in the existing protocol of an altcoin.