As blockchain technology continues to revolutionize industries, video games are no exception!Web3 gaming is one of the most exciting areas in development right now, and one of the leading blockchains for it is the Ronin Network, built from the ground up to power the top blockchain games.With its focus on optimizing transaction speed and reducing costs, Ronin has become a leading choice for game developers looking to get the best out of blockchain. Source: Sky MavisWhat is Ronin?At its core, Ronin is a specialized blockchain designed to support gaming ecosystems. Created as an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible Layer-1 blockchain, it has been custom-built to handle the demands of gaming, offering the efficient scalability necessary to manage millions of players every day.Launched in 2021, Ronin’s main benefit is its ability to process a high volume of transactions quickly and at a low cost. This makes it an ideal platform for web3 games, with millions of item trades, gameplay mechanics and player interactions able to be processed flawlessly without slowdowns.Sky Mavis, the creators of the popular web3 game Axie Infinity, developed Ronin specifically to handle the demands of Axie, as no other blockchain could at the time. Over time, Ronin has gained significant attention, investment and top games, raising over $311 million USD across notable investors like Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz and more.How Ronin WorksThanks to its architecture being specifically designed for gaming, Ronin offers crucial advantages to players, including lower fees when buying and selling in-game items, faster transaction speeds, and more straightforward interactions between games and NFTs.The main token of the Ronin ecosystem is $RON, used for transactions, staking, and governance. Games and applications can also create their own tokens on the network, such as $AXS and $SLP, used in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. These can be held in the Ronin wallet, accessible through browser extension or mobile app.Today, the Mavis Market is the main NFT trading hub for Ronin assets, with daily trading volumes currently reaching around $100,000 USD.Ronin’s security is bolstered by a variety of high-quality validators, including major institutions like Google and Animoca Brands. With more than 170 million $RON tokens staked, representing 60% of the circulating supply, the network is secured by 22 validators and around 20,000 delegators.Decentralization is a key aim of the Ronin development team, and there are plans to increase the number of validators over time to help facilitate this. Source: Sky MavisThe History of RoninThe story of Ronin can be told by its two most popular games – Axie Infinity, which sparked the first play-to-earn boom in 2021, and Pixels, which led the second play-to-earn boom after it migrated from Polygon to Ronin in 2023.Axie Infinity sees players own, trade, and breed digital pets called Axie’s to complete in PVP battles. The game hit its height in late 2021 and early 2022, becoming the #1 blockchain game with 2.8 million daily players and $42 million USD in daily transactions at its peak. The fast, low-cost transactions made possible by Ronin helped boost the title to heights not previously seen for a web3 title. Pixels, an open-world farming MMO, experienced a meteoric rise to prominence across late 2023 and early 2024, becoming the #1 blockchain game in terms of player count. Pixels’ success saw a massive influx of users to Ronin, with the number of daily active addresses skyrocketing from around 12,000 to over 200,000.Since its 2022 debut, the market capitalization of the $RON token has also surged, from $40 million USD to an impressive $500 million USD. The total value locked (TVL) in the Ronin network has also increased greatly, rising from $48 million USD to $166 million USD in the same time frame.Pursuing plans to expand and enhance its capabilities further – as well as entice a new generation of leading blockchain games – Ronin is expected to continue its growth in the coming years. With its reputation for solid reliability and hugely successful titles, Ronin is a powerhouse of the web3 gaming industry, and looks set to remain a major player well into the future.
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