Dev Diary #2 — The Origins of CryptoPets

How the team came together, the initial vision, and how the project reflects and has has evolved to support its growing community. See Part 1 here

3 min readJun 21, 2018

June 20th, 2018 | Washington, D.C.

Mitchell Opatowsky, CryptoPets Head of Product, and Luke Bateman, Head of Communications, discuss how meeting in the early stages of the growing Washington, D.C. blockchain space helped to propel the company to where it is today.

When members of the team met, there were only a handful of members of the Washington D.C cryptocommunity. Groups like the DC Bitcoin Users Group started to pop up alongside some larger entities like the Digital Chamber of Commerce and some serious developers like IBM and Consensys, but this didn’t amount to much of a community. Even in a space with a driving philosophy of strength through community, albeit decentralized, the scene was remarkably isolated.

What the D.C. space lacked, and is only beginning to see the early growth of, is a core developer community. Along with techies working at places like the IMF, State Department, and World Bank, who’ve gotten exceptionally more technical over the years, a small group of blockchain experts is emerging in Washington.

That’s @blakechains and @_themitch_ in the 3rd row at the State Department last summer

After attempting a number of unique ventures from replacing outdated Metro turnstiles to putting Raspberry Pis in taxis, we thought we’d found a match in CoinScore, an early cryptocurrency intelligence platform market entrant. Our initial momentum was slowed to a halt by delays with development, and a lack of a cohesive product vision that seemed to be a hurdle for many blockchain startups.

We’d been fascinated by the prospect of blockchain in video games since we became interested in the tech itself. During our initial market research for CoinScore, we saw that gaming at the time was based in a few main cryptocurrencies like Nitro, Unikrn, FirstBlood, Edgeless, and Enjin. But these tokenized systems, while inventive, didn’t push the boundaries of the technology in the ways we saw possible, as they had yet to represent any change of the game design itself. They hadn’t discovered the potential of non-fungible assets.

Be honest… how many times have you watched this looping by?

During the early days of the CryptoKitties craze, we realized what the potential for digital assets based in ERC-721 could have. Though an incredible, and more importantly real, use case, CryptoKitties lacked the elements of video games that we felt were necessary for its success. Recognizing the enormous potential for the blockchain game space, we embarked on a mission to drive blockchain development forward while forging new onramps for newcomers to engage with the tech and accept it. Though our idea attracted a lot of attention, we’ve had to adapt to a changing blockchain space, our project has radically evolved because of that.

This early crypto-collectible craze was crucial for our development. We attracted investors, made partnerships, and made the connections which are setting CryptoPets up for long-term success.

With a smile that makes you question the other person’s intentions,