Ronin Bridge to Restart on June 28
- Bridges help move assets from one blockchain to another.
- Millions of users’ funds have been stolen from several cross-chain bridges since the year began.
The team behind the popular blockchain game, Axie Infinity, has confirmed that it will re-open the Ronin Bridge months after it suffered a $552 million hack. The game developer, Sky Mavis, noted that users will have their stolen funds returned, which clears the path for the re-opening.
Before its sudden halt, the Ronin bridge helped players move assets between the Ronin chain and the Ethereum network. Ronin’s return is slated for the 28th of June. Sky Mavis further stated that the re-launch would require a hard fork and as a result, node operators would have to upgrade their software.
• We plan on re-opening the Ronin Bridge on June 28th, with all user funds returned.
— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) June 23, 2022
• Re-opening will require on a Ronin hard-fork which requires all validators to update their software.
• Validators have been informed regarding next steps to upgrade their validating node.
The team said that it has informed node operators that act as validators on the measures they need to take, while the non-validator nodes will be required to adhere strictly to details supplied by the developers.
Details on the Ronin Bridge Attack
Ronin joined the list of blockchain platforms to fall prey to foul players in the crypto space after suffering an attack in late March. The hack reportedly wiped off about $552 million in Ethereum and USDC. This was one of the biggest attacks in crypto history. Sources state that the hacker was able to attack the network by using stolen private keys to authenticate transactions from five of the platform’s nine validator nodes.
Reports later revealed that about $7 million in ETH from the stolen funds were sent to Tornado Cash, a mixing service. However, the U.S. Treasury made further discoveries, linking some wallet addresses to a popular North Korean hacking team, Lazarus Group.
The company swung into action to restore its user’s trust and pledged to repay or recover the stolen funds. Sky Mavis later revealed that it had raised $150 million in fresh capital with support from Paradigm, Binance, Animoca Brands, and venture capitalist firm, Andreessen Horowitz.
Ronin Bridge Passed Security Test Before its Re-launch
Sky Mavis has worked hard towards tightening loose ends and ensuring that the re-launched bridge would feature enhanced security. The team recently revealed that the modified Ronin bridge had successfully passed an audit from the blockchain security company Certik. It wrote:
“We are happy to report that the Certik audit came back clean with minor suggestions. We are implementing Certik’s improvement recommendations and will begin to deploy the validator Governance Smart Contract. The Ronin Bridge is still on track for a re-opening this month.”
Sky’s news of enhanced security for its bridge would undoubtedly come as a piece of good news to its users as several cross-chain bridges have suffered costly attacks. Despite being heavily prone to attacks, many believe that cross-chain bridges are very useful to discard. The blockchain space is relatively still in its cradle stage. This means that a lot of things are yet to be figured out. So, it is only a matter of time before most platforms develop better ways to combat hackers and other foul players.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
