{"id":993,"date":"2022-07-11T15:31:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T15:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandpascrypto.com\/?p=993"},"modified":"2022-07-11T15:31:22","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T15:31:22","slug":"what-is-happening-with-axie-infinity-recap-and-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandpascrypto.com\/what-is-happening-with-axie-infinity-recap-and-update\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Happening with Axie Infinity (Recap and Update)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

tl;dr Summary:<\/strong> It has been over 3 months since the Axie Infinity hack that stole over $600 million in ETH and USDC. Since then, Axie Infinity has investigated the issue, completed security audits to improve protections, and now relaunched their Ronin Bridge. The relaunch of the Ronin Bridge is critical to Axie Infinity following their early access launch of \u201cAxie Infinity: Origin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in late March, Axie Infinity was hacked<\/a> and over $600 million in ETH and USDC was stolen from the Ronin network. Ronin is a central part of the Axie Infinity ecosystem, acting as a bridge between the sidechain network and Etheruem\u2019s mainnet. While blockchain games are supposed to run off a decentralized system, the game boasts a more progressive democratic system\u2014keeping a more centralized infrastructure in the form of the Ronin Network but leaving central decisions regarding the game\u2019s future in the hands of its player base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the hack, the game has experienced a major decline from its peak. In August of 2021, the game saw over $800 million in NFT trades over a 30 day period but data over the last couple of months shows that total value traded dropped over 90%. This over 90% drop from the game\u2019s highs are consistent with the decrease in AXS value and SLP value\u2014the respective in-game governance and reward token.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game which used to bring over 2.5 million weekly active users onto the Axie universe has seen an over 60% reduction in its player base. With all this in mind, many are left wondering whether or not the relaunch of the Ronin Bridge will bring back the old ferver the community had over the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To better understand this, let\u2019s revisit the hack, what they have done to remedy it, and where the game could go from here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read the whole explanation from @metav3rse on Instagram here: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Cf39Rm7OwBr\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How the Hack Happened<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Axie Infinity, before their hack in March 2022, was the most successful NFT-based video game in total trading volume to date. With millions of players and billions of NFT transactions during 2021, it seemed like the game had created a compelling case for Play-to-Earn blockchain games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a hack conducted by North Korea’s Lazarus Group that drained the game of over $600 million changed the entire narrative. Instead of a narrative of new technology finding a place in video games, the story of Axie Infinity has become a cautionary tale of new-age Play-to-Earn models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hack was accomplished by having a fake company reach out to senior engineers and lacing job offer PDF\u2019s with a virus. This sophisticated hack allowed the hackers to take control of validator nodes in the Ronin Network and efficiently empty the game\u2019s treasury through the network\u2019s own system logic. Because the Ronin Network only utilizes 9 validator nodes, the hackers only needed to take control of 5 nodes in order to control transactions on the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this point, it was easy for hackers to validate fraudulent transactions and then proceed to wash the proceeds through transaction mixers like Tornado Cash\u2014breaking the connection between source and destination addresses and ending the digital money trail that authorities could otherwise follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of this hack was the Ronin Bridge losing over 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC stablecoin. The collective value of the assets were over $550 million at the time of the attack and over $620 million at the time Axie Infinity announced it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Axie nation builds relentlessly. Recently, we've put together a string of victories that will propel us towards our infinite destiny.

We\u2019re proud to present our July Development Update!

\ud83d\udcdc: https:\/\/t.co\/XNfVTKq9xp<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/8JZbuSa0WN<\/a><\/p>— Axie Infinity\ud83e\udd87\ud83d\udd0a (@AxieInfinity) July 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>