The cryptocurrency industry may soon welcome a new category of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, as BEAM (Coin-focus) plans to run its second hard fork, which would give DeFi applications a layer of privacy .

According to a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the system-wide upgrade dubbed Beam Eager Electron 5.0 should take place today, exactly at block 777 777.

Beam installs with BeamHash III

The hard fork of the Mimblewimble-based privacy patch will be the last "expected change in consensus" and will roll out some great features, including moving the network PoW algorithm from BeamHash II to BeamHash III.

BeamHash III is a PoW bandwidth and memory algorithm designed to support network GPU architectures while improving network security and longevity.

In preparation for the upgrade, notable changes that would support the upgrade have been made and published, such as the BEAM portfolio and nodes. The mining pools and exchanges have also made adequate preparations to support the hard fork.

Beam Eager Electron 5.0 would not require Beam users to perform difficult actions beyond a software upgrade.

Privacy for DeFi applications

The DeFi market is booming and could be the next big thing in the crypto industry. In just one year, the total value blocked in DeFi projects has exceeded $ 1.6 billion, against $ 317 million with more than $ 15 million of ETH blocked daily.

However, as the DeFi sector continues to record huge growth and move towards widespread adoption, DeFi applications lack a functionality considered important in the crypto space - confidentiality - since most DeFi projects are based on Ethereum .

Fortunately, Beam hopes to change this narrative, as the next hard fork will further support the creation of privacy-focused DeFi applications above the Beam blockchain.

Commenting on the development, Alex Romanov, technical director of Beam, said:

Eager Electron 5.0 is a major advance, both technological and product, to make Beam a leading platform for confidential decentralized financial applications allowing to trade any value, at any time, quickly, reliably and privately. .

Other features that would come with the upgrade include a disruptive linkage feature to protect users from victims of hackers as well as to facilitate the transaction process of its Confidential Assets (CA).

ACs are independent tokens on the Beam network and can be issued by Beam users who have locked more than 3,000 BEAMS ($ 1,498). There are three types of CAs, including confidential synthetics, confidential wrapped assets, and community coins and tokens.

Beam said its certification authorities are considered the first class token in its ecosystem and would have the same priority as its native token - BEAM.

Atomic beam exchange

Interestingly, Beam Eager Electron 5.0 would also include the official launch of the atomic network exchange, thereby allowing Beam's AC to be traded with other cryptocurrencies like BEAM, BTC , LTC and QTUM .