Ronin is an Ethereum sidechain built by Sky Mavis specifically for Axie Infinity, designed to handle the high transaction volumes of a blockchain game without expensive Ethereum gas fees. Launched in February 2021, Ronin was essential to Axie Infinity’s growth — enabling millions of daily micro-transactions (breeding Axies, collecting SLP rewards) that would be prohibitively expensive on Ethereum mainnet. Ronin uses a Delegated Proof of Stake consensus with a relatively small validator set — a design choice that prioritised speed over decentralisation. This became catastrophic in March 2022: hackers (North Korea’s Lazarus Group) compromised 5 of 9 Ronin validator nodes, stealing $625 million in ETH and USDC from the Ronin Bridge — the largest crypto hack in history. Sky Mavis compensated players and rebuilt with a larger, more decentralised validator set. Ronin relaunched with improved security and expanded beyond Axie Infinity to attract other games. RON became the native gas and staking token (previously Ronin used ETH for gas). The Ronin ecosystem now hosts multiple games and has its own DEX (Katana), making it a gaming-focused blockchain rather than a single-game sidechain. RON stakers earn fees from gaming transactions and the Katana DEX.
Example: Before Ronin, an Axie player breeding two Axies would pay $50-100 in Ethereum gas. On Ronin, the same action costs fractions of a cent. This enabled millions of small transactions that made the Axie economy function. When the Ronin Bridge was hacked, players trying to withdraw ETH found the bridge empty — a stark lesson about the security trade-offs of centralised sidechains versus decentralised rollups.
Learn more: Ronin Network
