BNB Greenfield Ural Hardfork Set to Enhance User Experience and Storage Provider Performance

The BNB Greenfield network is gearing up for the highly anticipated Ural hardfork, which promises to bring a host of exciting updates and improvements to the platform. The Mainnet Ural hardfork is scheduled to occur at block height 5,347,231, which is estimated to take place on March 14th at 07:00 AM UTC, based on the current block interval.

To ensure a smooth transition, validators and Storage Providers (SPs) are advised to upgrade to the latest versions of the software before the hardfork. Validators should upgrade to greenfield v1.4.0, while SPs should upgrade to greenfield-storage-provider v1.4.0. It is important to note that the upcoming hardfork will not impact user account balances on Greenfield, and all buckets and objects stored on the Greenfield Testnet will remain accessible.

The Ural hardfork introduces several new features and bug fixes aimed at enhancing the user experience. One notable addition is the ability for authorized accounts to assign tags to resources, as outlined in PR #563. This feature will allow for better organization and categorization of data within the Greenfield network.

Storage Providers will also benefit from the Ural hardfork, with improvements to bucket migration (PR #1250) and the introduction of illegal special character restrictions during object creation (PR #1298). These changes are designed to streamline the storage process and prevent potential issues arising from the use of unsupported characters.

The Ural hardfork is part of BNB Chain's broader "One BNB" interconnectivity paradigm, which aims to integrate the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), opBNB (L2), and BNB Greenfield into a cohesive ecosystem. This unified approach ensures seamless interaction between decentralized computing and storage solutions, paving the way for a more efficient and user-friendly blockchain experience.

Looking ahead to 2024, BNB Greenfield is set to redefine the landscape of data storage and processing. The outlook for the platform includes the development of advanced features such as Greenfield Executable, Atomic Update, and Paymaster (AA), as well as improvements to the middleware infrastructure, including the bundle service and Data Availability Layer.

One of the primary goals for BNB Greenfield in 2024 is to significantly boost Storage Provider performance. The target is to increase upload speeds from the current 2MB/s to 10MB/s and download speeds from 20MB/s to 100MB/s, representing a five-fold improvement. These enhancements aim to drastically improve the overall efficiency of data handling within the blockchain network.

As BNB Chain continues to evolve and expand, the Ural hardfork represents an important milestone in the ongoing commitment to provide users with a seamless and effective platform. By introducing new features, addressing bugs, and responding to community feedback, BNB Greenfield is positioning itself as a leader in the decentralized storage space.