Axie Infinity Now Secured By Google Cloud

The custom Ethereum, slide chain Ronin, is pivotal to the foundation of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity and in developers Sky Mavis's attempt to further decentralize the Web3-centric program, it has teamed up with a Web2 giant.

Today Sky Mavis announced that it had entered into a partnership with Google Cloud that will see the cloud computing department of arguably one of the most important companies in the world, run a validator node on Ronin. In short, Google Cloud will help process transactions and secure the sidechain network.

According to a press release, Google Cloud has been the NFT startup's “strategic cloud partner” since 2020, with this new agreement further deepening the company's ties to each other. The cloud solutions firm Searce will also help in the partnership.

“Sky Mavis is a strong example of how the cloud can enable blockchain technologies to yield innovation and value creation for individuals,” said Google Cloud’s Southeast Asia Managing Director Ruma Balasubramanian in a release. “Alongside Searce as our implementation partner, we look forward to working with Sky Mavis to accelerate its product roadmap and grow the Ronin network with secure infrastructure as its core. We’re also excited about the possibilities that could emerge from this latest collaboration – be it entertaining experiences for users or new business models in games distribution.”

Google will become the Ronins network 18th validator, which has doubled in numbers since Axie lost $552 million worth of cryptocurrency in a massive hack back in March.

During that attack, five of the nine validator nodes were compromised using hacked private keys, with the U.S Treasury Department citing North Korean hacking group Lazarus as the main culprits.

Sky Mavis says its goal is to reach 21 validators for Ronin since the attack firms like Web3 gaming guild startup Yield Guild Games, blockchain analytics firms Nansen and DappRadar, as well as leading metaverse investor and game publisher Animoca Brands, have all become validators.

Googles Cloud services are also partnered with other blockchain-based software companies, such as validating transactions for video platform startup Theta Labs and joining the governing council for Hedera Hashgraph. In May, the department announced the creation of its own Web3 team focused on powering blockchain applications.

Since the attack in March, NFTs have seen a stark drop-off, as many have become skeptical of their security when interacting with these programs, but a partnership with a tech juggernaut like Google Cloud could regain some of the public trust in this emerging technology.