Ronin scales with zkEVM chains powered by Polygon

Currently the largest gaming blockchain by active users, Ronin, has announced its forthcoming support for zkEVM L2 chains. Using a modified version of the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK) will allow third-party game developers to build their own L2 blockchains on Ronin.

With an active daily user base exceeding 1 million, Ronin is the top gaming blockchain, despite not boasting a large number of games compared to other networks. By collaborating with Polygon and building a dedicated ZK blockchain, Sky Mavis aims to provide a home for infinitely more game developers and users.

“While Ronin has comfortably supported our existing games with low gas costs, our exponential growth means we need to stay 5 steps ahead when it comes to scalability. Certain games, such as fully-onchain-games, have specific needs and may even want to put a majority of game actions onchain. In the past, it’s been difficult for us to work with these types of games as we were wary of games that could potentially clog up Ronin with transactions,” said Sky Mavis in an official blogpost.

Further plans include integrating a Polygon ZK prover directly into Ronin in order for developers to create their own zkEVMs without needing to establish their own security and consensus. In return, game developers looking to launch their L2s on Ronin will need to meet the 250K RON requirement to run a Ronin validator before launching their chain.

In terms of a timeframe, the first zkEVM chain to launch on Ronin may be “sometime in Q1 2025”.

Sky Mavis CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen commented, “Our key goal is to build a unified gaming ecosystem that facilitates effortless asset transfers, token swaps, and NFT trading between Layer 1 (L1) and L2 games, all while offering low gas fees for users. By removing blockspace as a constraint, we believe Ronin zkEVM is a crucial pillar to help us onboard billions of gamers,” adding, “With the support of Polygon’s best-in-class ZK tech stack, this collaboration between two ecosystems will usher in a new era of Web3 gaming.”

“Ronin is at the forefront of bridging cutting-edge technology with unparalleled distribution power and user engagement. Polygon CDK will help transform Ronin’s gaming ecosystem by creating a permissionless environment, making it a premier destination for thousands of game studios,” said Polygon co-founder and Polygon Labs CBO Sandeep Nailwal.