BEP-95 (Bruno Hard Fork Upgrade)

BEP-95 is a BNB Evolution Proposal that introduced a real-time burning mechanism on BNB Smart Chain. Under it, a fixed share of the gas fees collected in each block is permanently destroyed instead of being paid to validators. The proposal was activated through a network upgrade known as the Bruno hard fork in November 2022. At launch, 10% of block gas fees were burned, with the percentage adjustable through the chain's governance process.

BEP-95 is one of several mechanisms that reduce the supply of BNB, the coin used to pay fees on the network. It works alongside the quarterly BNB Auto-Burn, which removes coins on a formula linked to price and block production, and is often compared with Ethereum's EIP-1559, which burns a base fee on every transaction. Together, these mechanisms make BNB's supply shrink over time, a design described as deflationary tokenomics.

Imagine a toll road where drivers pay a fee at each booth, and the money normally goes to the people who run the booths. After a rule change, a tenth of every toll is put through a shredder instead. The road keeps working as before and drivers pay the same fee, but fewer notes stay in circulation every day.

BEP-95 is that shredder for BNB Smart Chain. When people make transactions, they pay fees in BNB. Most still go to the validators who process the blocks, but a slice is destroyed for good. Over many millions of transactions, the total amount of BNB in existence slowly falls, which supporters argue ties the coin's scarcity to how much the network is used.

On BNB Smart Chain, the validator that produces a block collects the gas fees paid by the transactions in it. Before BEP-95, those fees were distributed to validators and to the people who delegated stake to them. The proposal changed the process at the system contract level:

1. Fee collection. Users pay gas fees in BNB for each transaction, as before.
2. Split at block level. When the block's rewards are distributed, a set percentage of the fees is separated out.
3. Burning. That share is sent to a burn address from which no one can spend, removing it from circulation permanently.
4. Distribution. The remaining fees are distributed to validators and delegators in the usual way.

Because the burn happens with every block rather than on a schedule, its size rises and falls with network activity: busy periods with many transactions burn more BNB, quiet periods burn less. Public dashboards track the running total, contributing to figures for burned supply.

Burning has been part of BNB's design since its launch in 2017, when the Binance exchange committed to use part of its profits to buy back and destroy coins every quarter until half of the original 200 million supply was gone. In December 2021, that profit-based burn was replaced by the Auto-Burn, which calculates the amount to destroy from BNB's price and the number of blocks produced, aiming for a more transparent and predictable process. BEP-95 added a third channel, linked directly to on-chain activity rather than to Binance's business. The general practice is explained in burning tokens, and the long-term target of 100 million BNB remains the reference point for the quarterly programme.

Ethereum's EIP-1559, introduced in August 2021, also burns fees, but in a different way. It sets a variable base fee for each block that rises and falls with demand, and burns the entire base fee, while users add an optional tip for validators. BEP-95 does not change how fees are set; it simply burns a fixed share of whatever fees are paid. Ethereum's design was mainly intended to make fees more predictable, with burning a side effect, while BEP-95 was aimed directly at reducing supply. Because BNB Smart Chain fees are low per transaction, the absolute amount burned under BEP-95 has been modest compared with the quarterly Auto-Burn.

Supporters say real-time burning links the value of BNB to use of the chain and returns some benefit from fees to all holders. Critics note several points. Burning a share of fees reduces validator income, which must be balanced against the need to keep enough validators running the network. The mechanism is controlled by governance on a chain with a relatively small validator set, so the burn rate can be changed. Supply reduction does not by itself guarantee any particular price outcome, since price depends on demand as well as supply. And because BNB is closely tied to Binance, the exchange's regulatory and business position remains a larger influence on the coin than any single burn mechanism. Readers interested in how fees are charged should also see gas fees and transaction fees.

• BNB Evolution Proposals on GitHub
• BNB Chain