Maxwell Hardfork Upgrade Pt 2

Proposal Type: Protocol Upgrade

Summary:

To support the upcoming Maxwell Hardfork on BNB Chain (BEP-524), Venus Protocol will implement key changes to maintain correct protocol behavior due to the increase in block production speed (from 1 block every 1.5s to 0.75s). The changes will take place in two phases:

Phase 1 (Pre-Hardfork):

• Upgrade the interest rate model of every VToken using the CheckpointView contract. This allows seamless switching between rate models based on timestamp, ensuring proper interest accrual post-hardfork.

Phase 2 (Post-Hardfork):

• Redeploy core contracts with updated blocksPerYear = 42,048,000, including:

  • VAIController
  • Prime
  • PrimeLiquidityProvider
  • All VToken contracts

• Update blocksPerYear in the XVSVaultProxy

• Adjust voting durations in governance to match the new block timing

• Halve all per-block rewards (XVS Vault, VAI Vault, Prime Liquidity Provider, and XVS emissions in the XVS market) to maintain consistent daily distribution

Description:

The changes align the Venus Protocol with BNB Chain's upcoming block interval reduction to 0.75 seconds, scheduled for June 30th at 2:30 AM UTC. Without this upgrade, interest rates, rewards, and governance timings would be incorrectly calculated due to outdated block assumptions.

The CheckpointView contract enables the protocol to smoothly transition between interest rate models by checking the current timestamp—allowing accurate rates before and after the hardfork, without manual intervention or downtime.

Core contracts with hardcoded block rate values have been redeployed with the updated blocksPerYear constant to reflect the faster block time.

Reward emissions are being halved on a per-block basis to ensure the same effective daily distribution under the new block frequency.

Security Considerations:

• Audits: The upgraded code has been audited by Certik and Fairyproof
• Simulations: All VIPs were simulated in a dedicated test environment
• Testnet Deployment: Upgrade successfully tested on BNB Chain testnet with Venus testnet contracts

Audit Reports:

• Fairyproof Audit Report (2025/04/14)
• Certik Audit Report (2025/04/17)