Crypto thieves rob adorable digital animal game for more than $617M
Axie Infinity looks like a cross between a Tamagotchi and Pokémon, a «digital pet universe where players battle, raise, and trade fantasy creatures called Axies,» creatures that happen to be NFTs. A February 2022 writeup by Decrypt.co described it as «the play-to-earn NFT game taking crypto by storm,» but in a shocking development the game has now been taken by hackers, to the tune of more than $600 million—making it one of the biggest crypto heists of all time.
Axie makes use of Ronin, a «sidechain» designed specifically for the game that enables users to access the Ethereum blockchain without paying many of the standard transaction fees. A sidechain, as defined by HackerNoon, is «a separate blockchain that is attached to its parent blockchain using a two-way peg [that] enables interchangeability of assets at a predetermined rate between the parent blockchain and the sidechain.»
In simpler terms, it means that Axie Infinity players must have both a Ronin and an Ethereum wallet: Cryptocurrency from the Ethereum wallet is transferred to the Ronin wallet via the Ronin bridge, at which point it can be used to purchase Axies, the game's little creatures. In the game's current alpha state, Axies can be bred, raised, trained, and forced to fight one another for your amusement. Naturally, they can also be bought and sold on the blockchain.
It's complicated and honestly most of the process goes over my head, but what's important isn't what it does but what was done to it: As reported in a Ronin Newsletter update, the Ronin bridge has been «exploited» for 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC, which at the moment converts to more than $617 million.
Important announcement regarding a security breach on the Ronin Network.
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