“Axie Infinity” creator Sky Mavis uses Google Cloud to secure blockchain networks
Sky Mavis, creator of the popular “Axie Infinity” blockchain game, has teamed up with Google Cloud to become a blockchain game validator and non-fungible token network to scale it up securely and sustainably.
Sky Mavis announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud today during AxieCon, the company’s gaming and fan conference, that the company has tapped the tech giant to become a validator node on Ronin, its gaming transaction network. That means Google Cloud will help secure transactions on the “side chain” that supports their gaming platforms.
“Axie Infinity” is a play-to-earn blockchain game where players collect and trade digital pets inspired by salamanders known as axolotls called Axies in the game. These creatures can be bred and battled against each other in-game for rewards and are represented by NFTs, which are blockchain-based crypto-assets that hold value so players can exchange them for money.
The Ronin Network launched in 2021 using the Ethereum virtual machine designed to allow the thousands of transactions necessary to support large-scale gaming with low latency and low transaction fees, thus allowing millions of in-game microtransactions.
Google Cloud will join a validation node pool that includes Animoca Brands, DappRadar, Nansen and others. Validators monitor the security of the network by providing collective security and governance over transactions by monitoring the validity of transactions and ensuring that the entire pool is functioning properly.
“Validators have the important duty of ensuring that transactions on Ronin are processed correctly,” said Aleksander Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Sky Mavis. “They also serve as important ecosystem partners and mentors. Google Cloud, sitting at the intersection of being a recognized contributor to the developer community and having deep technical expertise in blockchain infrastructure and running validators, was naturally one of the best choices.”
In March, the Ronin network was the victim of a hack that stole $615 million as a result of a compromise of the Ronin validator nodes. During the hack, an attacker forged authentication keys and used them to forge withdrawal codes to steal cryptocurrency from the network.
The addition of Google Cloud to the validators is intended to strengthen Ronin Network’s validator pool and make it more difficult to compromise. Larsen added that Google Cloud has been a strategic cloud provider since 2020 and has now become the 18th validator for Ronin, on its way to having 21 independent validators.
Despite security incidents and a market downturn that has been dubbed “crypto winter” that has sent crypto markets plunging over 70% from all-time highs last year, blockchain gaming has seen remarkable highs in 2022. According to DappRadar’s blockchain gaming report in September GameFi represented more than 50% of industry usage.
“Axie Infinity” passed $4 billion in all-time NFT sales and attracted more than 36,000 daily players on average during the quarter. Last quarter’s report noted that blockchain gaming activity had exploded over 2,000% from the previous year.
Sky Mavis also intends to build its core infrastructure, including Ronin and Mavis Hub – a launch platform for new blockchain games – on Google Cloud’s cloud delivery network. The company hopes to establish the Ronin Network as the standard NFT scaling solution for blockchain games. By taking advantage of Google Cloud’s advanced load balancing capabilities, the platform will be able to deliver smoother experiences for users on all devices, including those living in rural areas with limited internet connectivity.
The company believes that Google Cloud will enable it to provide developers with scalable distribution of community-built games and other experiences built on Sky Mavis’ technologies and partnerships with major game studios.
“From our time in the Google for Startups Cloud program to where we are today, Google Cloud and our partner Searce have given us the right support in every phase of our growth journey – whether it’s managing fluctuating traffic so that 2.3 million Axie NFT owners enjoy fair platform experiences or introduce new mechanisms to drive sustainability across our digital nation,” said Trung Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of Sky Mavis.
