By: Nicolas See Tho
Virtual pets are not something new to most of us, especially those born during the golden age of technology, and recently, there has been a surge in popularity for virtual pets online but with a twist of a modern kind, enter the CryptoKitties by AxiomZen
So what are these CryptoKitties, simply put these are unique virtual cats that are created using the same blockchain technology that created Bitcoin and Etherium, but fitted to a crypto collection in this sense. Basically, you put in money in your digital wallet to buy these cats and each cat is unique to you, the owner which can’t be replicated, taken away or destroyed. You are even able to breed these cats together to create rarer breeds of cats. This is currently the latest fad in the world of cryptocurrency.
Why would we want to collect crypto kitties? Well for starters, the cats themselves are trade-able and collectable. Considering that the value of the cat is equivalent to the amount paid, one can say that if done correctly, you are basically earning more rather than a loss.
The popularity of these crypto kitties has risen beyond imagination, as some have even bought over $1m worth of kittens through this app via the Etherium blockchain. This goes to show that in 2017, we have people using dodgy cryptocurrency to buy dodgier virtual pets for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Despite how it looks from the outside, the key takeaway from this app would be how easy it is for beginners to use should they want to enter the Etherium hype. Players who want to start will use digital wallets such as the Chrome extension MetaMask which lets you send and receive Etherium directly through your browser. From there, you will then be able to interact with the smart contracts to buy and sell kittens.
To buy and sell these cats, you will place a bid or create a bid on the auction area, whereby there will be a 12-hour window for the auction to conclude your transaction. You can also create more kittens using the Siring system whereby you can put up your cat for breeding for a specific amount of Ether or allow someone else to breed with your cat allowing you to gain the ether while they keep the new cat.
Each kitten has a 256-bit genome which holds the genetic coding for features such as background colour, cooldown time, whiskers, beards, stripes and more. Genetic rules such as recessive genes are also applied. Thus far, there is no standardized rare scale for these cats and the rarity thus far is perceived by the society.
Currently, 15 % of all Etherium network traffic has been dedicated to the game making this app one of the most popular smart contract on the Etherium network.
For more information on these blockchain pets, check it out here: https://www.cryptokitties.co/.