The BNB Beacon Chain, initially designed as a staking and governance layer, serves to complement BNB Smart Chain (BSC) by enhancing security and supporting decentralized exchanges (DEXs). However, with the evolution of BSC and changes in the blockchain landscape, including the decommissioning of order-book-based DEXs in BEP151, the BNB Beacon Chain has become increasingly redundant. Its connection to BSC through a cross-chain bridge has introduced development complexities and security vulnerabilities.

As a result, the BNB Chain Fusion is a strategic shift to migrate the BNB Beacon Chain’s functionalities to BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and retire BNB Beacon Chain. This move aims to streamline the network, improve efficiency, reduce security risks, and align BNB Chain's architecture with the current technological demands and future growth.

Why Validators Should Be Excited About the Migration to BSC

The transition from the BNB Beacon Chain to BSC brings several benefits that validators should look forward to:

Streamlines the BNB Chain Development Process

The migration to BSC will streamline the development process by consolidating efforts into a single chain. This focused approach will lead to faster updates, more robust features, and a more cohesive development environment.

Optimizes the Chain Architecture and Security Model

By retiring the BNB Beacon Chain and integrating its functionalities into BSC, the overall architecture of the BNB Chain will be simplified. This simplification enhances the security model, reducing vulnerabilities and making the network more resilient against attacks.

Implement "Proposer Builder Separation"

The current fragmentation of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) solutions among providers and validators causes inefficiencies and potential centralization. This underscores the need for a standardized, open marketplace to streamline processes and enhance decentralization on the BNB Chain. Implementing PBS (Proposer Builder Separation) on BSC will establish a transparent and fair blockspace marketplace.

Optimize BNB Chain Staking Ecosystem

The transition to BSC will also optimize the staking ecosystem, integrating advanced financial tools like LSDFi along with native staking. After rigorous testing by the core development team, BNB Chain has successfully incorporated LSDFi capabilities. This integration provides validators and delegators with more flexible and efficient staking options, potentially increasing rewards and enhancing overall network participation.

Timeline

1. Prerequisite Steps
   1. BE2/BEP8 asset holders should transfer their assets to BSC.
2. Stage 1 - April 2024: Asset issuance on BNB Beacon Chain discontinued, validator management and network governance transferred to BSC. Disabling of the atomic swap function as of April 15, 2024.
3. Stage 2 - May 2024: Deactivation of governance and delegation on Beacon Chain, undelegation of all assets and return to user wallets.
4. Stage 3 - May 2024: Disconnection of cross-chain comms between Beacon Chain and BSC. Halt BNB Beacon Chain and archiving of Beacon Chain data.
5. Stage 4 - June 2024: Establishment of a token migration tool to help users recover funds stuck on the Beacon Chain.

For detailed information regarding the timeline and process, refer to the BNB Chain Fusion Roadmap.

For Validators

The introduction of native staking on BNB Smart Chain marks a significant milestone, enabling validators to be directly created and managed on the chain. Following the Feynman hardfork, validators initially established on the BNB Beacon Chain are required to migrate to the BNB Smart Chain to continue their operations.

To migrate your validator, you can take the following steps:

1. Create a new validator

The Staking Dapp offers a user-friendly interface for creating a new validator on BNB Smart Chain. Follow the detailed instructions in the validator creation guide to set up your new validator. It's crucial to populate the Identity field as specified in the guide to ensure a successful migration.

2. Migrate stakes to the new validator

Once your new validator is active, inform your delegators about the migration. They need to migrate their stakes to your new validator to continue supporting you. For comprehensive details on stake migration, refer to the stake migration guide.

For BNB Delegators

The BNB Chain community has introduced BEP333: BNB Chain Fusion, a significant update that retires the BNB Beacon Chain from the ecosystem. This transition introduces native staking on the BNB Smart Chain, following the Feynman Hardfork. Stakeholders now have the opportunity to migrate their existing delegations to the new native staking system through two primary methods:

• Cross Chain Redelegation via BC delegation portal
• Undelegation, Cross Chain Transfer, New Delegation

For delegations that are created in BEP153 format, please refer to this document for the migration process.

Refer here for the full step-by-step guide. 

Why Migrate Delegation Now?

• Simple and only takes a few minutes to complete the migration of your BNB delegation
• Enjoy high staking APY of around x40: If delegators do not migrate, the validator they delegated may not be elected as active, impacting APY. Currently, the new validators' rewards have a higher ratio than the validators on the BC chain
• Delegators that migrate their delegation now can participate in the Airdrop Alliance rewards

For BEP2 Token Issuers

Token binding was introduced to ensure that one token can circulate in both BC and BSC with confirmed total supply.

• If a token is bound, then it can be transferred between BC and BSC for different use cases. After the final sunset hard fork, the cross-chain between BC and BSC will be shut down. However, users can still use the token recovery tool to recover the bound assets on BSC. 
• If a token is not bound, after the final sunset hardfork, the assets cannot be recovered anymore. Token owners or issuers should take action to bind their valuable tokens

Please check the tutorial Confirm if the Assets Support Cross-chain Transfers to verify if the token allows cross-chain transfers. If the answer is positive, you don't need to do anything.  Otherwise, it is recommended that you follow the Token Bind Tool here to deploy a BEP20 token on BSC and enable cross-chain functionality.  It is recommended that the Token Issuer use multiple channels to promptly notify asset holders to migrate as soon as possible.

For BEP2 token holders

The BNB Beacon Chain is being retired as part of the BEP333 update. All assets must be migrated to the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) before the final sunset scheduled for June. Delaying could result in irreversible asset loss. Please read on for detailed migration steps.

Most valuable BEP2/BEP8 tokens (such as BNB and BTC) have the flexibility to move between the Beacon Chain and BSC networks without restrictions. It is strongly recommended that users transfer their assets to the BSC network to guarantee a smooth and loss-free transition, preserving a 1:1 asset ratio. For the full guide, please refer to this tutorial. While there are other asset transfer methods, such as centralized exchanges or decentralized cross-chain platforms like Binance.com and Thorswap, these alternatives are not covered in this tutorial.

For detailed information regarding the timeline and process, refer to the BNB Chain Fusion Roadmap.