CryptoKitties a Blockchain-based Digital Collectible!
Image source: https://www.cryptokitties.co/
Crypto what?
You’re right it sounds quite weird, a digital collectible cat! What makes these Kitties so unique? Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. Cryptokitties is a decentralized application (or DApp) developed by Axiom Zen that allows buying, breeding, and selling digital cats on the blockchain, website: https://www.cryptokitties.co/.
In this game, you can breed two Cryptokitties to create a brand-new, genetically unique offspring. It results in something special. These cats are more similar to real-world collectibles like comic books or baseball cards than they are to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. But unlike baseball cards, these collectibles are digital.
On the Internet, is very easy to duplicate a digital asset, such as an MP3 audio file or a pdf document. This problem is known as double spending. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and is known as the first blockchain implementation to solve that problem. Every node of the network has a copy of a digital ledger to keep track of every transaction and the account balances on the network.
¿Computer Code?
Cryptokitties is a bunch of computer code. These little cats are built on Ethereum which is a second generation blockchain. The main difference with Bitcoin is its ability to execute computer code, i.e., software. So, every Cryptokitty is a unique digital asset with their own Cattributes. Their physical appearance is controlled by a set of features designed by a human programmer.
This is the magic of blockchain; the technology allows designing a unique piece of software. To create a cryptocurrency that cannot be replicated, Nakamoto designed a solution based on public key cryptography, hash functions, P2P networking and consensus mechanism. These technologies exist before; he just put them together to present a very clever solution.
Why are some Cryptokitties expensive?
Every single kitty is unique and scarce. You cannot duplicate this kind of digital asset. Compare this idea with a first edition baseball card. You cannot copy or generate that first edition card and there is a demanding market eager to buy that card in case you want to sell it.
This DApp had an unexpected success! CryptoKitties players buy and sell unique digital kittens using Ether, which is the Ethereum’s digital coin. In December 2017, a kitty was sold on for over $63,00 USD. In a couple of months, a whole community of third-party sites and services has formed around CryptoKitties. By the way, fans have spent more than $23 million playing along.
CriptoKitties has done a fantastic job of demonstrating what blockchains can be used for beyond just simple financial transactions. It looks that we’ll keep hearing from this game in the future, CryptoKitties has raised $12 mln in funding from a group of investors, led by two top venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, as reported by CryptoKitties’ Medium account on March 21. To keep track of the news and the community involved, I strongly recommend you to check this article to stay up to date on Cyptokitties: How to stay up to date?
Are you a code programmer? Check the source code:
I’m hoping to start seeing lot more innovative uses of the blockchain for games like this in the future. In the meantime, have fun with this adorable little blockchain-based cats!
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Want to learn more? Check this article: What is blockchain?
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