Ronin Adds New Validators As Security Measure

The Ronin sidechain has added three new validators to the project, increasing the total number of validators to 17. 

Ronin Adds Three Validators

The Ronin development team recently announced in a blog post that they had increased the number of validators securing the chain from 14 to 17. The addition of the three extra validators is a part of the security measures being adopted by the developers to ensure higher levels of verification following the $600 million hack in March. Furthermore, the team has revealed that it will not stop at 17 and plans to establish a total of 21 independent validators. 

Plans Of 21 Validators

The Ronin sidechain is an Ethereum-powered platform that hosts the Axie Infinity game and is funded by the blockchain gaming company Sky Mavis. The new validators will add an additional layer of verification for transactions occurring on the sidechain. According to the team, the new validators are Efficient Frontier, Community Gaming, and Nansen. The first validator, Efficient Frontier, is a digital asset algorithmic trading firm that has worked with the Ronin Network as a market maker and to ensure token liquidity. 

The second validator is the global earnings platform and competitive organizer Community Gaming, which has recently partnered with Sky Mavis as an official operations partner. 

Finally, the third validator is the blockchain analytics platform Nansen.ai, which already provides in-depth information about Ronin Network data.

Security Measures By Ronin

The addition of the new validators is promising for the sidechain, as the massive exploit in March happened when the North Korean hacker group Lazarus took control over five of the nine validator nodes on Ronin and siphoned away 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC, amounting to over $600 million in crypto assets. The Ronin team had to scramble in the aftermath of the attack, somehow raising $150 million from investors like Binance, a16z, and Paradigm, to reimburse lost user funds. However, soon after the hack, in April, the team decided to impose higher levels of verifications by increasing the number of validators.

Since the Ronin sidechain is based on a proof-of-stake algorithm, transaction verifications happen based on the majority consensus or agreement of the validators. Therefore, the more validators that are on the system, the more secure the network is. As of today, the network requires 70% of the current validators to approve a proposal.

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