[Digital Today reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Gaming-focused blockchain Ronin will switch from an independent sidechain to an Ethereum layer 2 after a hard fork.

A recent Coindesk report said the shift is focused on strengthening security. Ronin suffered a $625 million DeFi bridge hack in May 2022 when it was operating as an independent sidechain. The incident remains the largest hack in the DeFi bridge sector to date. Coindesk said layer 2s are more closely connected to Ethereum than sidechains, which is advantageous for security.

The token economy structure will also change. Ronin will introduce a "proof-of-distribution" model to reward builders based on actual network contributions rather than passive staking. The Ronin team said the change will lower token inflation from more than 20 percent to less than 1 percent.

Ronin said it will switch to the OP Stack to inherit Ethereum security while maintaining high throughput. It will move 90 million RON previously allocated to staking rewards to the Ronin treasury, and raise marketplace fees to 1.25 percent from 0.5 percent. It will apply EigenDA for data availability to pursue scalability and cost reductions.