Just recently, the BNB Chain development team officially announced that the hard fork upgrade codenamed 'Fermi' has been successfully deployed.
Who is 'Fermi'? How fast is it really? Is this upgrade an added bonus or a complete transformation? Today, we will clear the fog and delve into the core of this hard fork to see how much the performance engine of BNB Chain has been tightened.
The extreme compression of the core engine: a thrilling leap from 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds.
First, we need to understand, what is a 'hard fork'?
Don't be scared by the word 'hard'. You can think of it as a mandatory upgrade of the operating system. The old version of the software will no longer be compatible, and all network participants (validator nodes) must update to the latest version in order to continue 'playing' on the chain. This non-backward-compatible upgrade is called a hard fork. It usually signifies a significant, fundamental rule change.
So, what are the core rule changes of the Fermi hard fork?
The answer is simple, just one number, yet extremely critical. This upgrade has significantly shortened the block interval time of BNB Chain from the original 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds.
750 milliseconds, less than a second. 450 milliseconds, even faster than a blink of an eye.
What does this short reduction of 300 milliseconds mean?
Let's make an analogy. Imagine that BNB Chain is a highway, and 'blocks' are buses carrying transaction information. The 'block interval' is the frequency at which the buses depart. In the past, a bus would leave every 0.75 seconds; now, a bus leaves every 0.45 seconds. The departure frequency has directly increased by over 66%!
This means that the speed at which your transaction requests are packaged, confirmed, and added to the blockchain will theoretically become faster. The anxiety of needing to stare at that little spinning wheel on the screen during on-chain interactions will be significantly alleviated. This speed increase is direct and tangible, bringing the user experience on BNB Chain infinitely closer to traditional internet applications.
More importantly, a shorter block interval directly equates to higher network throughput, which is commonly referred to as TPS (transactions per second). Without considering block size changes, merely increasing the frequency of transactions has achieved a qualitative leap in the theoretical capacity of this highway. This is a crucial expansion for accommodating the increasingly growing DeFi, GameFi, and various dApp applications.
The chain reaction of performance improvement: not just 'fast'
Lower transaction latency: The time from submission to final confirmation of transactions will be significantly shortened. For applications that are extremely sensitive to latency, such as high-frequency trading and on-chain games, this is almost a lifeline-level optimization. Imagine this: in GameFi, your critical operation fails due to network latency, and that sense of frustration is enough to deter a large number of players. The Fermi hard fork is working to smooth out this 'physical latency' in the digital world.
Potential stabilizing effect on Gas fees: Although the hard fork itself does not directly reduce the unit price of Gas fees, it can effectively alleviate network congestion by significantly enhancing network processing capacity. When highway lanes increase and speeds rise, the probability of traffic jams naturally decreases. A less congested network means that users can complete transactions with more reasonable Gas fees most of the time, avoiding falling into a crazy 'Gas War' during peak periods. Looking back at several upgrades in the first half of 2025, BNB Chain had set a target to reduce the average Gas fee to about $0.01, and the Fermi hard fork is undoubtedly a key step toward achieving this grand blueprint.
Laying a more solid foundation for the L2 ecosystem: Nowadays, Layer 2 expansion solutions have become a battleground for major public chains. BNB Chain's own opBNB has demonstrated astonishing performance with over 4000+ TPS and transaction fees below $0.001. However, we must understand that the performance and security of L2 ultimately need to be anchored on the L1 mainnet. The Fermi hard fork enhances the performance of L1, just like reinforcing the foundation of a skyscraper. A faster and more robust L1 can handle settlements and proofs from L2 more efficiently, thereby elevating the overall performance of the entire BNB Chain ecosystem (L1 + L2) to a higher level.
Cold reflection beneath the halo: the challenges behind prosperity
An interesting data point deserves our attention. According to Token Terminal, the number of core developers on BNB Chain seems to have decreased recently. This raises a profound question: As the chain's performance iterates rapidly, how do we continue to attract and retain the most creative builders?
This may not be a pessimistic signal but could reflect the natural evolution of ecological development. As the underlying protocols mature and stabilize, the focus of development may gradually shift from core protocol development of L1 to innovations in L2 solutions and upper-layer dApp applications. From this perspective, the success of the Fermi hard fork precisely creates better soil for the prosperity of upper-layer applications. However, maintaining the vitality and centripetal force of the developer community will be a challenge that BNB Chain must continuously face in the post-Fermi era.
In summary, the Fermi hard fork of the BNB Chain is a precise, pragmatic, and far-reaching technical upgrade. It does not paint an extravagant picture, but instead, through the 'simple and brutal' method of compressing the block interval from 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds, it has genuinely improved the network's speed, capacity, and responsiveness.
This is not only a direct optimization of user experience but also a strategic empowerment for the future development of the entire BNB Chain ecosystem. It allows BNB Chain to flex its muscles again in competition with new-generation high-performance public chains like Solana and Aptos; it also provides stronger underlying support for its vast L2 and dApp ecosystem.
Of course, in the world of blockchain, the pursuit of performance is never-ending. After Fermi, there will surely be a new journey. The game of the 'impossible triangle' regarding speed, security, and decentralization will continue to unfold. We have reason to expect that a faster, stronger, and more vibrant BNB ecosystem is accelerating towards us.
The support and attention of everyone is our greatest motivation to continue producing better works! Thank you all~
