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Sky Mavis to overhaul Ronin network and expand to new game studios

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SNEAK PEEK

  • Sky Mavis to repair Ronin’s key systems to make the network even decentralized and less vulnerable to hacks like last year’s $625 hack.
  • Ronin will shift to a delegated PoS consensus mechanism and grow beyond Axie Infinity’s IP.
  • The new system will enable users to stake RON tokens, acquire interest, become a validator and take part in block production. 

Last week completed one year of the Ronin network hack, in which the blockchain supporting the Axie Infinity video game was attacked for $625 million. The attack is the biggest-ever exploit of a blockchain network when it comes to the stolen value. 

Right after a year to the day of the hack, Sky Mavis, the firm behind Axie Infinity, has said that it is repairing the key systems of Ronin to make the network even more decentralized as well as less prone to the types of single points of failure it was affected by last year. Besides the upgrade, Sky Mavis has joined other game development studios to establish the Axie-universe and take Ronin forward in new blockchain-inspired video games.

Jeff Zirlin, Sky Mavis co-founder, said he believes the hack to be a badge of honor. They have seen multiple projects collapse under hardship this year, which makes them proud of being here and building.

Axit Infinity was one of the first breakout play-to-earn Web3 games that enabled players to earn crypto as well as trade in-game items through blockchain. Ever since its launch, the game has generated revenue worth $1.3 billion.

Axie Infinity was originally based on Ethereum; however, the high fees and inactivity of the chain led to challenges in terms of Axie’s expansion and accessibility.

The upgrade of Ronin will change the consensus mechanism by transforming the chain from “proof-of-authority” to “delegated proof-of-stake.”

In the old system, the network was protected by a small group of entities chosen by Sky Mavis. The small group that was responsible for protecting Ronin during its initial days is to some extent the reason behind last year’s attack.  

With the new system, users can “stake” some RON tokens and earn interest, as well as assist in curating the set of validators that run the network. Sky Mavis shared that anyone who has at least 250K RON can be a validator and participate in block production. 

At press time, RON was trading at $1.13, according to CoinGecko, which means one will require at least over $250,000 to qualify to be a validator.

The Ronin update is a new class of Ethereum scaling chains, known as Layer 2 rollups, that aim to fix the same goals as the Ronin chain, i.e., lower fees and quicker transactions. A few chains target gaming as a potential use case.

These networks have systems that will enable them to borrow the native security of Ethereum, which means they will not depend on the type of cross-chain bridge technology that became the target of last year’s exploit. 

According to the builders of Ronin, it will be a while before a game as large as Axie Infinity can securely move up one among such scaling chains. Zirlin said that in terms of doing the work that takes them towards an even more decentralized and scalable future, they are the innovators. However, as the problem isn’t fixed yet, there’s work that needs to be done. 

Zirlin noted that Sky Mavis reimbursed users of previous year’s exploit and opted for other technical steps to avoid similar attacks from happening in the future. 

He added:

“We’ve also hardened Sky Mavis’ internal security measures, increased the headcount of our security team, and upgraded our on-chain monitoring.”

Sky Mavis has expanded the ecosystem of Axie beyond its original playing-card-style video game, which has enjoyed huge popularity during the past many months. 

It is possible to trace the player decline, in part, to the crypto market collapse, which struck Axie’s in-game economy. However, Sky Mavis is also the reason behind Axie’s declining user count. Despite a dedicated fanbase, the game has faced criticism from players who say its once-lucrative “play-to-earn” technique conceals dull gameplay and a corrupt economic model.

Over the past year, Sky Mavis has enhanced Axie’s key gameplay with major updates and new game modes, though the long-term vision for Ronin has always been aimed at growing beyond the Axie IP.

The new team building games on Ronin feature Bali Games, The Machines Arena, Tribes Studio, Bowled.io, and Directive Games. 

Sky Mavis explained that chosen partner studios can access Axie IP for their titles or create completely new games with definite IP on top of Ronin.

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