Redesigned Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge Delayed till Late May

Fredrik Vold
Last updated: | 2 min read
Source: AdobeStock / StockerZ

 

The Ronin bridge is being redesigned after a major hack last month, with the opening of the new bridge delayed till late May. The delay is necessary since the bridge will be built to secure “billions of dollars in assets,” a new update from the team behind the bridge has said.

The redesigned Ronin bridge was originally planned to launch in April, but the launch date has now been pushed back to mid- or late May. And according to the team, the delay is necessary in order to be confident that the bridge “can stand the test of time.”

“We initially expected to be able to deploy the upgrade by the end of April, but this is not a process that we can afford to rush,” the update said, while adding that “the bridge will secure billions of dollars in assets, and it needs to be done right.”

Until the redesigned bridge opens, the crypto exchange Binance will support the Ronin Network with both wrapped ethereum (wETH) and USD coin (USDC) withdrawals and deposits for the popular crypto-based play-to-earn game Axie Infinity (AXS) users, the team further said.

Ronin is an Ethereum (ETH) sidechain built specifically for Axie Infinity. The Ronin bridge is used by players to move assets from the Ethereum network and over to the Ronin network.

The redesign work comes after the Ronin bridge was exploited on March 23, resulting in ETH 173,600 (USD 508.2m) and USDC 25.5m being drained from the protocol, making it one of the largest crypto thefts ever.

The exploit was only discovered by Sky Mavis, the development firm behind Ronin, on March 29, with Wednesday’s update saying that the late discovery was due to them not having in place “a proper tracking system for monitoring large outflows.”

The next step for the team is to deploy a so-called validator dashboard that can approve large transactions, as well as to add and remove new validators. Following that, all pending withdrawals must be migrated before the redesigned bridge can be deployed, the update said.

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