BNB Chain, a leading blockchain ecosystem known for its high-throughput decentralized applications, has activated the Jenner hard fork on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) testnet. The rollout introduces three core features aimed at enhancing payments, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and decentralized finance (DeFi) functionalities within the network.
Payment Lane feature debuts
The standout addition in the Jenner upgrade is Payment Lane, designed to secure uninterrupted space for payment transactions even during periods of heightened network activity. This mechanism, implemented through BEP-703, reserves 5% of each block’s gas limit exclusively for approved payment transactions by default. As a result, simple transfers, such as moving BNB between wallets, will not face delays due to block congestion caused by sudden increases in network usage.
Payment Lane ensures that regular transactions cannot consume the designated payment quota, safeguarding reliable capacity for crucial transfers. The reservation can potentially be adjusted up to 10% by a governance vote. However, only specific payments currently qualify for the reserved space. According to BNB Chain, standard BNB wallet transfers are automatically eligible, while stablecoins like USDT and USDC do not yet qualify and require separate governance approval to be added to the list.
Mini dictionary: BNB Chain is the blockchain infrastructure developed by Binance to run decentralized applications and facilitate payments. The BNB Smart Chain is its core network supporting smart contracts and fast transactions.
Payment Lane reserves 5% of each BSC block’s gas for eligible payments, ensuring essential transactions like BNB transfers maintain priority even during congestion. Stablecoins are not yet included and will require future governance approval.
| Transaction Type | Payment Lane Eligibility |
|---|---|
| BNB wallet-to-wallet transfer | Automatically eligible |
| USDT transfer | Not eligible (pending governance) |
| USDC transfer | Not eligible (pending governance) |
Enhanced time precision for smart contracts
The Jenner hard fork also improves smart contract precision by allowing contracts to access block timestamps in milliseconds, an upgrade introduced via BEP-706. Previously, smart contracts could only read block times in whole seconds, potentially leaving timing windows open longer than intended for applications like trading platforms where milliseconds matter.
Developers must opt in to utilize the millisecond-accurate function, while existing contracts relying on second-based timestamps will continue to operate as before. This advancement does not alter the actual speed of block creation, but it gives decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts finer control for use cases where timing is critical.
This improvement allows new dApps to enforce stricter timing requirements, helping prevent situations where market quotes or deadlines unintentionally extend beyond their intended expiration due to the previous one-second timing granularity.
CAS20 token standard unveiled
Another major component is CAS20, or Compliant Asset Standard, defined under BEP-702. This new token framework is aimed at issuers who require greater control and compliance capabilities than those afforded by the current BEP-20 standard. With CAS20, issuers gain the ability to implement allowlists, blocklists, pause transfers, and delegate roles such as minting and burning.
While the Jenner hard fork has integrated the necessary logic, CAS20 tokens cannot yet be issued. Activation will require a separate governance vote and administrative approval. BNB Chain cautions that these technical controls alone do not ensure legal compliance, but they do provide issuers with essential tools for regulated assets. Moreover, CAS20 tokens are designed to remain compatible with existing BEP-20 wallets and decentralized apps.
Mini dictionary: CAS20 is a new token standard on BNB Chain offering advanced compliance features for token issuers, including permission controls, support for asset freezing, and roles for token management that are not available in the general-purpose BEP-20 standard.
BNB Chain stated that the schedule for the Jenner hard fork to reach mainnet will be announced in the future. Of the three new features, two will remain inactive until further governance activation takes place. Initial governance votes are expected to determine when assets like stablecoins will gain access to Payment Lane on the testnet.
