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The Dawn of Ronin
A Review of Ronin’s Breakout 2023
Ronin Network
Dec 30, 2023 • 12 min read
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Key Points

  • In Part 1 of this Year-in-Review, we explain why Ronin is the fastest growing blockchain by real users in the world. The seeds we planted in 2023 have begun to bear fruit: over 10x growth in Daily Active Users and RON market capitalization. 1.2M new Ronin addresses over the past year. Pixels became Web3’s second breakout IP after Axie Infinity and now calls Ronin home.
  • In Part 2, we describe how we laid the foundation for hypergrowth on Ronin by reinforcing our infrastructure throughout the year. The upgrade to DPoS strengthened Ronin’s security and further decentralized our network. Mavis Market made it possible for creators to launch or migrate their NFT collections onto Ronin. Ronin Name Service (RNS) and the Ronin wallet will make it easier to onboard the next billion Web3 gamers.
  • In Part 3, we summarize what worked in 2023 and share a sneak-peek at 2024. Spoiler alert: we’re just getting started.

The holidays are here, and we’re days away from stepping into a new year. What better time to look back on the past twelve months together? Welcome to Ronin’s year-in-review. We entered 2023 with a monumental task: transforming Ronin into the best place to build and grow Web3 games. 2023 was the dawn of Ronin – a scorching sunrise lies on the horizon. We’ve pushed through fire and flames to get here – and it feels like we’re just getting started. This article will cover everything that happened since January: the alliances forged with game studios, the reinforcement of Ronin through DPoS, the exponential growth in real on-chain users, the upgrades to various Ronin and Axie products, and the foundation we’ve laid for 2024. 

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so consider this quote from our co-founder Jeffrey “Jiho” Zirlin before we begin: 

On that note, we suggest reading this with a cup of coffee. Or tea.

Part 1: The Fastest Growing Gaming Blockchain in the World

“The fastest growing gaming blockchain in the world” – bold words, but true.

Source: Nansen

On January 1st 2023, Ronin had about 12K daily active addresses (DAA). Today, that number is well over 200K. That’s more than 16x growth.

Source: Coingecko

Earlier this year, the RON market cap was ~40M USD. Anyone who was around back then also remembers that Axie was the only game available. Compare that with today: RON’s market cap has surged past 500M, which represents over 12x growth. 

Source: Token Terminal

Ronin’s Monthly Active Addresses also surpassed 1.24M in 2023 – a 707% increase year-over-year. More real users.

Source: Defi Llama

Last but not least, Total Value Locked has grown from $48M to over $145M over the same time. These are the fruits of our 2023 labors, and we’ve seen many new games launch on Ronin along the way. 

Here’s how we made it happen:

The Ronin ecosystem today

Infinite Games: Built on Ronin

Since 2021, we’ve been on a mission to spread digital property rights to users of the internet – starting with gamers. That’s why we’ve curated partnerships with game studios who align with our vision. Over ten game studios have joined our movement within the past year, and more are coming soon. A few of these builders have even experienced the Ronin Effect already: a phenomenon that occurs when a Web3 game or NFT collection sees massive growth after migrating or launching on Ronin. For example, Pixels saw its DAU surge beyond 100K while Apeiron watched its daily transactions roar past 5K. These are glimpses of the future we’re building. Let’s look at Pixels and the Ronin Effect

Pixels and the Ronin Effect

Game genre: social farming simulation MMO (think Stardew Valley or Habbo Hotel)

  • Migration date: October 31st, 2023
  • NFT collections: Pixels Pets, 315K+ RON in volume so far
  • Ronin Effect: Pixels DAU surged past 100K after migrating to Ronin. Players also spent ~190K RON buying Pixels VIP passes within the first week after migration. These are real, paying customers generating revenue for Pixels.
Play Pixels now
Learn more about Pixels
Pixels DAU on Wednesday, November 15th – one week after migrating to Ronin

Every movement starts with a group of passionate people – and this is even more true in gaming. Stans. Power users. Superfans. These players will be the first to playtest a new feature, and the most committed online marketers in any community. Through Axie, we learned the importance of finding and nurturing these superfans into a self-sustaining engine. That’s the secret behind the Ronin Effect.

Pixels is Web3’s second breakout game after Axie Infinity. They’re a scrappy, experimental team that leans into blockchain gaming. Their success is great for the Ronin movement, and even more important for Web3 gaming as a whole. Axie Infinity was a card-battler, while Pixels is a social farming simulation MMO. Both games reached a ceiling on Ethereum, and Ronin took them to the next level. This is the reason we curate our partnerships on Ronin: it’s not the genre of the game. It’s the builders and the blockchain they chose.

How to Get Started with Pixels

Step 1: Go to https://play.pixels.xyz/

Step 2: Choose to log-in or sign-up via Ronin Wallet, email address, or phone number

Step 3: Complete the tutorial with Barney the farmer to earn 10 $BERRY and 6 popberry seeds

Step 4: Enter Terravilla and start playing Pixels!

In Terra Villa, players can walk around in a free, randomized avatar or wear their own integrated NFTs. Short and stubby CrypToadz, tall and lanky Bored Apes, big and puffy Pudgy Penguins… All are welcome! Connect your wallet, chat with your friends, and change your appearance any time. Check out the list of current NFT collections already integrated in Pixels, or submit an application to bring your NFT collection to life in Terra Villa using their Typeform. Players can also change their username for 1,000 $BERRY.

You may also want to get a plot of Farm Land once you’ve explored Terra Villa and powered through a few tutorial-style Quests. Acquire a small, non-NFT Speck Land with $BERRY earned in-game, rent an NFT Farm Land from another player, or buy your own plot on Opensea. Of course, these Land Plots will be available on Mavis Market once Pixels’ migration is 100% complete.

More Games on Ronin

Pixels is one of many games on Ronin today. We’ve welcomed Apeiron, ZOIDS WILD ARENA, and Wild Forest to our movement over the past few months alone. The Machines Arena, Axie Champions, Bowled.io, Battle Bears, and Tribesters: Island of Solas came aboard in March of 2023. Among these games, players explore everything from real-time strategy (RTS) and match 3 Puzzles to trading card games (TCG), a roguelite x god game hybrid, and team-based shooters. 

Calling all Game Developers – Let’s Build Together

Ronin is the frontier for game developers. We’re also home to the two largest breakout IPs in Web3. We know what it takes to make blockchain gaming work, and would love to connect with more developers interested in joining our movement. Fast transaction speeds. Minimal fees. A vibrant community of passionate Web3 gamers. These already exist on Ronin. If you're aiming to build, grow, and monetize your game, Ronin is the place to be. Connect with us through the form below and let's shape gaming history together.

Apply to build on Ronin

Part 2: Gaming Infrastructure for Real Users

Over the past year, we’ve built and reinforced infrastructure to prepare for the next wave of Web3 gamers – whenever it comes. Our upgrade to DPoS in March opened the door to a more decentralized ecosystem, and each product release throughout the year compounded atop this foundation. We also forged alliances with new partners to provide Web3 tooling for developers, gamers, and regular users. Ronin is getting ready to onboard the next billion Web3 gamers. 

The Upgrade to Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)

In March, we upgraded the Ronin consensus mechanism from Proof of Authority (PoA) to Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). The reason behind this decision was simple: a more decentralized network is a stronger one, and it opens the door for more builders to contribute to our ecosystem. It also made it possible for users to stake their RON for the first time. We’ve since distributed about 21M RON in rewards to stakers. Google, Animoca Brands, Nansen, DappRadar, and others all contribute to the security of the Ronin network as Governing Validators while a variety of community members have since become Standard Validators. Ronin is secure. In total, there are 22 validators and ~20K delegators securing Ronin today with over 170M staked in total so far – which is about 60% of the circulating supply.

The upgrade to DPoS ushered in a new era for Ronin. At the start of the year, Axie Infinity was the only game available to play. Today, players have a lot to explore between games from our curated partners and games built by the Axie community. There’s more: third-party, non-gaming services now exist to help users borrow or lend against their Ronin assets, create on-chain gaming identities, query the blockchain without rate-limiting, and more. Builders also have access to new tools like lightning-fast price feeds, gamified social campaign builders, token launchpads, and more. Our ecosystem grows stronger everyday. We laid these bricks throughout 2023 – starting with the upgrade to DPoS. What will the Ronin fortress look like in 2024?

Mavis Market: Ronin’s First Generalized NFT Marketplace

In May, we launched Mavis Market. Mavis Market is more than Ronin’s first generalized NFT marketplace: it’s where the next wave of NFT creators will launch or migrate their collections. The CyberKongz were the first to jump in, and their Genkai public mint confirmed what we already knew: Mavis Market works for everyone. 

Theirs was the first non-Axie NFT collection to set foot on Ronin and it minted out within the first hour. All 3,000 Genkai NFTs found homes with over a thousand unique owners at the price of 0.25ETH each. 200K total RON volume. $1.4M USD in revenue. 2x DAU in a week. The Ronin blockchain processed 1.5K transactions within the first three minutes that day. Many called it the Smoothest Mint of All Time. 

This was a big win for us because we took a contrarian approach to Mavis Market’s royalty structure. As a result, we now offer builders something that no one else can: guaranteed creator royalties on a marketplace with tons of real-users.

Royalties and Aligned Incentives on Mavis Market

We designed the Mavis Marketplace Fee Structure to align incentives between creators, Sky Mavis, and the Ronin network. Creators can set their own fee percentages for their work, the Ronin Treasury receives a .5% fee, while Sky Mavis receives a 2% fixed fee for building and maintaining the marketplace. These splits allow us to develop the best marketplace possible for as many users as possible. 

This also makes Ronin the first blockchain that receives a portion of an NFT marketplace fee: it’s the equivalent of an NFT marketplace on Ethereum giving a portion of its fee to Ethereum itself! RON now accrues value from:

  • Utility as payment for gas
  • Staking rewards
  • Ownership of Katana dex’s .05% fee
  • Mavis Market’s .5% fees
  • 30% of Ronin Name Service (RNS) fees

…and more. Soon.

Ronin Name Service (RNS): 20K Gamertags Forged in One Month

Blockchains need human-readable addresses to onboard legions of non-technical users. For example, try saying ronin:41d8cf42236be14cc7b0c0df519a95822d7ad423 ten times fast. It’s too much to ask! That’s why we launched RNS in November: turn long, complicated strings of numbers and letters into memorable gamertags. The Ronin team modeled RNS on Ethereum’s Name Service – ENS. However, we made a few updates and introduced an anti-squatting fee. This fee gives users a better chance to acquire the name of their choice. 

There were 20K RNS gamertags forged within the first month of the RNS Public Sale. This generated about 160K RON in revenue, 30% of which went to the Ronin Treasury. We also gave our partners and select community members the opportunity to secure their RNS names before the Public Sale to reduce impersonation attempts. Today, anyone can create an RNS name or trade one on Mavis Market. RNS is a pillar of onboarding because the next billion users will look for a way to express themselves when they join our movement – and we’ll be ready when they do.

The Ronin Wallet

Today, the dawn of Ronin is on the horizon. The pieces are in place, and the next phase of our voyage is about to begin. Over the past year, we’ve crafted the Ronin wallet to withstand the rigors of the journey ahead.The numbers speak for themselves: more than 1.2 million people created a Ronin wallet address in the past year. Our social login feature, the integration with Binance Pay, and the introduction of free swaps to RON have boosted the Ronin’s wallet’s accessibility. These are small but critical features that reshape the user experience. They allow us to offer a more intuitive experience for new users, and there’s more to come. 

We’ve only touched on a fraction of what we could discuss. Here’s a complete list of launches. Thanks, Dashred for the inspiration and curation of the list!

Part 3: What’s next?

2023 was the dawn of Ronin. We learned what works, and saw the beginnings of hypergrowth. In 2024, we’ll double down on everything we’ve learned and stay true to our scrappy, experimental DNA. More curated partnerships with great games and brands. More infrastructure upgrades from Sky Mavis including Mavis Store – an online shop for third-party builders. More tools for developers to contribute to our movement. More, more, MOAR.

Here are a few teasers you can expect in the new year:

  • Multi-Party Computation (MPC) Wallet technology to improve gaming and onboarding experiences
  • Plans to improve Scalability. We are conducting extensive research on existing scaling solutions and are excited to share where Ronin is headed
  • Reputation systems to reward the most-committed missionaries in the Ronin movement
  • Airdrop programs and partner token launches
  • Protocol Upgrades & more Ronin Evolution Proposals (REPs). For example, REP009 proposal generating yield on bridged ETH

Hundreds of thousands of real users connect their Ronin wallets to applications everyday. We’ve earned the trust of our community, and appreciate all of our allies walking beside us on this journey. It’s a sight to behold – we’ve reached the point where it’s almost impossible to keep up with everything happening on Ronin. Think back to last year, when Daily Active Addresses were at 12K and the RON market cap stood at ~$40M. We’ve since seen exponential growth in 2023, and we’re as hungry as ever. 

Thank you to the Ronin community for believing in our vision. Every step we’ve taken together brings our destiny that much closer. 2023 was the dawn of Ronin. 2024 is the sunrise. 

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year,

The Ronin Team

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