[2017-12-18] CryptoKitties Brings Blockchain to the Masses

[yndye]

CryptoKitties, an online game and marketplace featuring virtual kittens, has become an entry point for curious outsiders looking to dabble in cryptocurrencies - decentralized digital monies that rely on blockchain technology to enable peer-to-peer transactions.

Company reps say their main goal is to teach people how to use blockchains; open, distributed ledgers of cryptocurrency transactions. Bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency and blockchain protocol, but there are others.

“As part of launching this project, we were really trying to educate people who haven’t perhaps bought Ethereum before, people who aren’t in the crypto space.” said Elsa Wilk, marketing director at AxiomZen, the Canadian tech consultancy that created CryptoKitties.

That may have been the initial idea. But marry cute kittens and a buzzy, emerging tech phenomenon and kitten chaos ensued.

CryptoKitties’ cheerful, user-friendly interface has caused its popularity to surge among blockchain products and services. To date, there have been over $16 million USD in transactions resulting from the purchase, breeding and sale of digital kittens.

“Using something like cats is a very unintimidating, friendly, cuddly way to be introduced to a very hard, technical subject like the blockchain,” said Wilk. “We really took the approach of making the blockchain more approachable.”

How it works

CryptoKitties is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Purchases are made using the Ether cryptocurrency, which can be purchased with real money through a digital currency exchange like Coinbase. To begin buying and selling CryptoKitties, users first set up a digital wallet with MetaMask, an Ether wallet and browser for applications built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Kittens cost anywhere from .004 ether (about $3 USD) to upwards of 100,000 ether (a whopping $79.3 million USD). Wilk said the objective of the game is to make more kitties, but one of the company’s ultimate goals was to test whether a blockchain platform could support the buying and trading of unique, digital cats – what Wilk calls “crypto collectibles.”

At launch, the company released about 250 “Gen Zero” kittens, that is, those with no “parents.” Thereafter, a new kitten is released every 15 minutes. According to Wilk, the number of original kittens that will ever be released is approximately 50,000.

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/cryptocurrency-game-introduces-blockchain-to-users/4169705.html

[iamTom123]

In my estimate, this is signalling a new chapter in the life of cryptocurrency most especially the Ethereum network which experienced clogging due to the volume of transactions for CryptoKitties. In another instance, this exposed a great weakness for the network to handle such a deluge of micro-transactions never seen in a long time. Will the same thing happened with Bitcoin if they also use it as one of the mode of payment? I am sure that it can paralyzed the whole Bitcoin network which is telling us that there is something wrong here and things need some upgrade. While we are dreaming for mainstream adoption, it is unfortunate that the whole infrastructure is not fully ready yet. The time has come for us to squarely face this big challenge and make cryptocurrency two steps ahead of its time. Will those in charge in deciding the direction of Bitcoin listen to us? I am hoping they will.

[squatter]

In my estimate, this is signalling a new chapter in the life of cryptocurrency most especially the Ethereum network which experienced clogging due to the volume of transactions for CryptoKitties. In another instance, this exposed a great weakness for the network to handle such a deluge of micro-transactions never seen in a long time. Will the same thing happened with Bitcoin if they also use it as one of the mode of payment?

It essentially caused the same effect as spam attacks in Bitcoin. It's comparable to Satoshi Dice during its heyday. You just need to pay higher fees (gas) to get instant block confirmations. The real problem with the CryptoKitties launch was that exchanges weren't prepared for the volatility in required gas.

I am sure that it can paralyzed the whole Bitcoin network which is telling us that there is something wrong here and things need some upgrade. While we are dreaming for mainstream adoption, it is unfortunate that the whole infrastructure is not fully ready yet. The time has come for us to squarely face this big challenge and make cryptocurrency two steps ahead of its time. Will those in charge in deciding the direction of Bitcoin listen to us? I am hoping they will.

Honestly, I'd say that no blockchain is ready for production/mainstream use. Linear scale is completely inadequate for Visa or even Paypal-like volume. So that's the main problem. The primary exponential scaling methods being proposed (payment channels and sharding) are nowhere near ready for production, but at least we have a spec for the Lightning Network now.

We should be thankful: if the technology and ecosystem were mature already, we wouldn't be able to buy at such a discount.