At AxieCon, Sky Mavis, the creator of category-defining non-fungible token (NFT) title Axie Infinity, has announced a multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to bolster the security of Ronin, Sky Mavis’ blockchain network, and advance its vision of building a games universe with interrelated, immersive, and rewarding experiences.

Google Cloud will become an independent enterprise validator for the Ronin network, joining a validator node pool that includes Animoca Brands, DappRadar, Nansen, and more. By running and overseeing a validator node on the Ronin network, Google Cloud will contribute to its collective security and governance, while taking on the role of monitoring validator uptimes.

Ronin is a blockchain network built using the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) that was launched by Sky Mavis in February 2021 to speed up transactions and drastically reduce gas fees for its fast-growing user ecosystem, thereby allowing millions of in-game micro-transactions to occur seamlessly. It operates on a Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus model, where validators are selected based on their credibility and are responsible for verifying, voting, and maintaining a record of transactions on the blockchain. As a part of Sky Mavis’ shift toward decentralization, it proposes new validators and puts them up for a vote. The current network then requires at least 70% of its existing validators to approve a proposal.

“Validators have the important duty of ensuring that transactions on Ronin are processed correctly. They also serve as crucial ecosystem partners and supervisors,” said Aleksander Larsen, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Sky Mavis. “Google Cloud, which sits at the intersection of being a recognized contributor to the developer community and having deep technical expertise in blockchain infrastructure and running validators, was naturally one of the top choices. Google Cloud has been our strategic cloud provider since 2020, so welcoming them now as Ronin’s latest and 18th validator is a big deal for us, especially as we push toward our initial goal of having 21 independent validators securing the network.”

Strengthening the Foundation for a Community-Centric Digital Nation

By building core offerings like Ronin, its proprietary Axie Infinity game titles, and Mavis Hub – a launchpad for promising new blockchain games – on Google Cloud’s open, scalable, secure, and sustainable infrastructure and low-latency network, Sky Mavis aims to establish Ronin as the default NFT scaling solution for gaming and open up opportunities for users to turn their time and effort into real-world value.

With Sky Mavis actively providing resources and support to help its community developers create and monetize compelling experiences on top of Axie Infinity and Ronin, Google Cloud will enable the scalable distribution of community-built games and other experiences created through Sky Mavis’ partnerships with major game studios. Given that a Ronin transaction is already engineered to be more energy efficient than a transaction on a Proof of Stake blockchain, Sky Mavis’ decision to run its platforms on the industry’s cleanest cloud will further reduce its ecosystem’s overall environmental impact.

Sky Mavis has also chosen Google Cloud for its Cloud CDN’s advanced load balancing and caching features, to deliver smooth and reliable experiences to users anywhere on any device – including those who earn income through Axie Infinity but live in rural areas with intermittent online connectivity.

“From our time in the Google for Startups Cloud Program to where we are today, Google Cloud and its partner Searce have provided us with the right support at every stage of our growth journey – whether it’s handling fluctuating traffic so that 2.3 million Axie NFT owners enjoy equitable platform experiences or introducing new mechanisms to drive sustainability across our digital nation,” said Trung Nguyen, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sky Mavis. “We very much look forward to our next phase of collaboration with Google Cloud and Searce, especially with their clear commitment to our industry and desire to support us and the wider community with relevant capabilities for born-in-Web3 applications.”

Empowering World-Class Talent to Grow a Games Universe

Sky Mavis aims to hire 100 more individuals over the next 18 months. To continue attracting world-class talent and allow its centralized team of engineers in Vietnam to easily connect, create, and collaborate with their colleagues across the world, Sky Mavis has also adopted Google Workspace as its productivity and collaboration platform.

Built on Google Cloud, Google Workspace brings together applications like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Chat, and more, into a single, integrated workspace, with built-in enterprise-grade access management, device management, data protection, and data encryption, to establish a secure hybrid working environment.

Having tripled the size of its global team in the past year to accelerate its product roadmap and support the increasing volume of user-generated games and content within its ecosystem, Sky Mavis is also enabling its engineers to maximize their talent and make meaningful contributions to its user community.

From introducing new battle systems, balance changes, and seasonal leaderboards, to opening a marketplace for trading Axie NFTs, to launching co-created blockchain games on Mavis Hub, Sky Mavis has released hundreds of development updates. At the same time, the company must ensure that it is synchronizing game states in real-time during multiplayer sessions and matchmaking players of similar skill levels. By automating application deployment and game server orchestration – with zero downtime – using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), its technical teams can avoid manual backend configurations and focus on building engaging features and products.

“After a comparison of all options, we chose Google Cloud due to a number of core differentiators,” said Viet Anh Ho, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Sky Mavis. “One area in particular is Google Cloud’s open source heritage and managed Kubernetes service. Engineers at Google actually invented Kubernetes, so it’s only natural for Google Cloud to have the best autoscaling and automated application deployment capabilities. These free up our engineers to break new ground and delight users with interrelated and immersive experiences – all without disrupting active gameplay.”

“Sky Mavis is a strong example of how the cloud can enable blockchain technologies to yield innovation and value creation for individuals,” said Ruma Balasubramanian, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Google Cloud. “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.”

About Sky Mavis
Founded in 2018, Sky Mavis is on a mission to create digital property rights for gamers by building games that are owned and governed by the communities that play them. Sky Mavis’ first game, Axie Infinity, is one of the largest NFT gaming ecosystems. As inventors of the Play-and-Own (P&O) concept, Sky Mavis is revolutionizing how people play, live, and own within virtual worlds. Based in Vietnam and Singapore, Sky Mavis has raised funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Paradigm, Libertus, and Mark Cuban.

About Google Cloud
Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.