The Vancouver-based venture studio that made blockchain cute with an online game have just raised millions through venture capital funding
(File Photo)
They’re called
CrypoKitties – a furry feline digital game that took the Ethereum world by storm last December. The release also created severe congestion on the network as millions of users traded customizable cats and bred their own hybrid species. In turn, eager players bought and sold the cutesy virtual creatures for tens of thousands of dollars. Yes.
Tens of thousands of dollars.
The cartoon cats were really just representations of digital tokens on the
Ethereum blockchain, meaning they could exist independently of their creators – the Vancouver-based studio
Axiom Zen.
Branded as ‘Collectable. Breedable. Adorable.’ these felines look vibrant, playful, cute...and valuable. In fact, the most expensive cats in the game, with rare attributes, have been sold for upwards of a whopping $80,000.
The wily cats managed to evade regulation by being categorized as a ‘cryptocollectible,’ rather than a security. This meant the app could be launched in China despite a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency trading.
Every possible variation of all potential and future CryptoKitty has already been designed. Due to the 256-bit genome code traits of each digital kitty there can only be about 4 billion variations of CryptoKitties. A new digital kitty is “born” every 15 minutes on the game platform.
The excitement around Ethereum is all about its potential for storing and keeping track of anything that relies on authentication and verification: think real estate deeds, job contracts, resumes, or even autographed sports memorabilia.
And it just so happens that a digital kitten game is the first product to demonstrate that potential.
CryptoKitties is not the only game on the blockchain, with other games like
Spells of Genesis, on
Bitcoin, and
CryptoCelebrities on Ethereum, where players can trade popular avatars on the Ethereum network. At press time, players can only buy a CryptoKitty with Ether digital currency.