BNB Chain sets the Jenner hard fork for 8 December with bsc v1.8.2, a mandatory node upgrade
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readBNB Chain released bsc v1.8.2 on 3 November and marked it a mandatory update for all BSC mainnet node operators, MEV builders and sentry operators. The release schedules the Jenner hard fork, described in BEP-718, for 8 December 2026 at 02:30 UTC, timestamp 1796697000. Operators have to replace the binary and restart before that moment.
Jenner activates three changes that need a hard fork. BEP-702, the Compliant Asset Standard, adds CAS20 stateful precompiles; creating such tokens requires a separate activation by an administrator appointed through governance. BEP-703, the Payment Lane, reserves 5% of block gas by default for eligible BNB transfers and for transactions to listed payment contracts, and governance can change both the ratio and the list. BEP-706 exposes millisecond block time through precompile 0x70, while block.timestamp stays in seconds.
The release also carries the BEP-675 MEV changes first shipped in v1.8.1, which do not need a fork: a gRPC transport for BidBlocks with binary RLP payloads alongside JSON-RPC, rejection of BidBlocks with a zero state root, revocation of a builder's local SendBidBlock access on bad-block evidence from other validators, and new metrics. Operators upgrading from v1.7.x or v1.8.0-alpha are told to read the earlier upgrade notes first for removed configuration fields and RPC changes.
What it means
Until now the three BEPs had code but no date; v1.8.2 gives them one. Nodes that are not upgraded by 8 December will stop following the chain, and contracts that read block.timestamp do not change, so any application that wants sub-second time has to switch to the precompile on purpose.