Beam (BEAM), the privacy-focused altcoin, announced yesterday that its second hard fork is fewer than two months away. This second hard fork will improve Beam’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm and introduce new network features.
Beam’s second hard fork is scheduled for June 28, 2020 and will take place at block 777,777. In the process Beam will switch from its BeamHash II Proof-of-Work algorithm to BeamHash III.
BeamHash III will be a vast improvement to the mining network, as it will allow miners to take advantage of GPU cards to a much greater extent. After the second hard fork, Beam users will be able to make use of features such as one-sided payments and confidential assets, as well as the Lelantus Mimblewimble privacy protocol. Beam users must upgrade their software prior to June 28, 2020.
Although the second hard fork is schedule for June 28, 2020, users can expect the testnet fork to take place several weeks prior. The actual date is dependent on block times.
For the convenience of users, Beam expects to release its node and desktop wallet binaries before the end of the month of May. This will provide users with ample time to upgrade. Users should note that the compatible releases of miner, node, and wallet will be versioned Eager Election 5.0. After the hard fork, previous versions will no longer work, but users can still upgrade after the fact for full access to their Beam funds.
Beam’s second hard fork will come less than a year after its first hard fork, which occurred on August 19, 2019 at block 321,321. The initial hard fork did result in some mining difficulty, largely because some miners failed to upgrade.
For more information about Beam (BEAM) and its Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm visit beam.mw.
