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One week on from a fatal exploit that saw more than $600 million drained from the Ronin bridge, Sky Mavis has announced plans to firm up security on the network. Ronin Network plans to scale its validator network up to 21 independent nodes by the end of June, with additional protection coming via an update to the Ronin wallet.
Update @ 2 pm UTC, April 6: On April 6 Sky Mavis revealed that they had raised $150 million USD in a funding round led by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, with participation from Animoca Brands, a16z, Dialectic, Paradigm, and Accel. The round will be used to reimburse user funds affected by the Ronin validator hack.
Summary
- On March 29, 2022, Hackers stole 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC by exploiting the Ronin bridge that allows users to move assets in and out of the Axie Infinity ecosystem.
- Ronin wants to scale the number of independent validators to 21 by Q2, 2022.
- Animoca, Nansen, Delphi, Stable Node, and Dialectic will become Ronin node validators.
- Ronin invites community members to become validators – application form here.
- Ronin wallet adds private key and LEDGER support.
Securing Ronin
In line with Sky Mavis’ ambitious plans for Ronin, they want to engage with their community further to collectively secure and oversee the network. Ronin already announced that Animoca Brands, Nansen, Delphi, Stable Node, and Dialectic would soon become new node validators, taking the number to 11 with plans to add a further ten within the next three months. It’s worth noting that each of the newly announced validator partners are also investors in Sky Mavis, Ronin, and Axie Infinity.
First up, Ronin wants to add more organizations to the validator node pool, and they onboarded Nansen, Delphi Digital, Sthrible Node, Animoca Brands, and Dialectic. This expansion of the validator node pool will be ready for completion within a week. The goal of this stage is to simply get a new collection of stakeholders into the group and get them familiar with the node technology in its current state.
Secondly, Ronin wants to evolve the current source code to improve security and decentralization functionality. For example, adding the ability to assign withdrawal limits enables more governance functions in the bridge. Moreover, the process is intended to involve the community and other security firms and investors.
Additionally, community members are also encouraged to apply. The application asks various questions to assess a party’s ability to secure the network. Those interested can use the hashtag #securingronin to share feedback with Ronin through social media.
Ronin wallet update
In a Tweet on April 6, Ronin also announced several upgrades to its Ronin wallet, bringing two new features to aid with security. Users will now be able to import just a private key to the Ronin wallet and use the Ledger Hardware wallet with the Ronin Chrome extension.
Axie feels the burn
As a result of the exploit, Axie Infinity, the leading play-to-earn game belonging to the Sky Mavis family of dapps, felt the full effect. In the 24 hours after the hack was revealed, activity on the Axie Marketplace dropped more than 17%. What’s more, the platform generated approximately 30% less volume. Axie Infinity NFTs also felt the hit, as volume for one of the most traded NFT collections dropped by over 20%. The number of active traders also decreased significantly. The collection’s market cap shrunk by 33% to just over $11 million. Regarding Axie Infinity, the game saw an 11% decrease in active players and a drop in transactions.
The community has remained strong and rallied around the brand to keep up the momentum gained over the last 12 months. More importantly, the Sky Mavis team has said they are committed to ensuring that all stolen funds are recovered or reimbursed. They will continue discussions with stakeholders and the broader community to determine the best course of action and are still investigating the issue.
The show must go on
Despite all this, Axie Infinity Origin, one of the most plugged play-to-earn releases, is set to launch on April 7th, bringing a revamped Arena gaming mode. The arena is where players battle against each other, fight for points to climb the overall ranking and earn AXS rewards.
Despite the negative backdrop, Axie Infinity Origin has already created a lot of chatter among Axie community members. Furthermore, Sky Mavis organized the Origin Launch Week, including a drop-like release of information about the game. This has built additional excitement and hype around the new release.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
