CryptoKitties and what’s next in the world of crypto critters
Only 7 days ago, CryptoKitties launched and finally gave the internet a place to bring two of its greatest loves together: Cats & Blockchain.
And it’s freaking adorable.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that it’s taking the crypto world by storm. 15–20% of ethereum blockchain traffic comes from activity in this dApp (decentralized app) and users have poured over $5 Million worth of eth into the game.
Wow. Serious wow.
To put that in context, Pokemon Go was only bringing in about twice that amount in their first week of launch.
So this is all pretty exciting. But what does this mean and what’s next?
What it means
Owning real cryptocurrencies can be totally normalized. Now, instead of this wild and crazy thing that prospectors, tech nerds, and dark webbers use, it’s something that Joe Schmo in middle America can own without absorbing any personal branding/identity of the early adopters.
The emotional journey for most new-to-crypto users face:
👉 Wait, what is crypto?
👉 👉 Oh, it’s a bad person & tech nerd thing
👉 👉 👉 Hmm… maybe it’s for finance bros and gamblers, too?
👉 👉 👉 👉 Definitely not for me, I’m none of those things.
👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 Wait, this game looks fun …
👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 *installs a wallet and buys crypto*
This tweet typifies what I’d expect many feel:
I believe this is huge for crypto. At least if this chain can support all the traffic and doesn’t collapse in a hellfire, taking a sh*t ton of money (wrapped up in all the eth-based ICOs) with it.
CryptoKitties makes owning eth the emotional equivalent of owning Farm Cash in FarmVille, Gems in Clash Royal, or PokeCoins in Pokemon Go. It’s totally ok.
It’s ok for you to own crypto now. You’re not a weirdo for doing it.
What could have been
Obviously, the Kitty creators didn’t anticipate this kind of reaction, uptick, traffic deluge, but I kind of wish they had.
I wish they had build more traditional on-ramps to the game—principles of freemium gaming that allow anyone to grind their way into asset ownership, but buy their way to speed.
If they had done that, we’d possibly see a much more accessible game, full of people grinding and micro-transacting their way into and around this cryptocurrency introduction.
But alas, they did not.
There doesn’t seem to be anyway to get into the game at a price anchored to anything in fiat. Which is to say, they didn’t build any way to always buy in at $10.
Without a fiat anchor, any increase in price of Ether can leave people up a creek without a paddle and unable to get into the game.
It’s not too late, though. They can modify the game, add another layer of in-game currency, and let users “earn” it somehow in the game (by babysitting eggs from the Gen 0 Kitties?) or buy it directly with Ether.
This double-tier system of in-game currency is actually quite common in freemium gaming, and could work pretty well. See below for a deeper dive if you’re curious[1]
Here’s the catch: CryptoKitties would have to make this new currency the base currency for buying & breeding kitties. And they would have to keep it centralized to control the price and keep it approachable.
I just don’t see them doing that. Defeats the whole (philosophical) purpose of the game: true, decentralized ownership.
What’s next in the Crypto Critter space?
I was joking with some friends about how much time and effort it would take to make a copycat (pun!) of CryptoKitties to jump on this—CryptoPuppies anyone?
Looks like I’m not the only one who thought of that…
Makes me smile to see that.
Then I saw this:
As of writing time, the links don’t even all work. There’s a “whitepaper” listed at the bottom, but it points to nothing… yet.
But I love it. Here’s why:
CryptoKitties is hosted publicly on the blockchain. 100% of its data is user addresses (on the chain) and transactions (on the chain).
So if I, theoretically, wanted to make a little universe for breeding and trading digital pets and I wanted to (hypothetically) create a world in that universe just for breeding and trading Kitties, I might not have to get my own users.
I might be able to model the CryptoKitties world, complete with true ownership and authentication, bypassing any cold-start, empty network issues.
Then those kitties can play around with the dogs I bought with Dogecoin, or dragons I got with my Dragonchain DRGN coin…. the list goes on.
And if someone else wanted to open up a digital pet grooming service. They could let you bring your kitty (or puppy, or platypus) that you raised and bred on CryptoPets and get it all spruced up.
Anyone with a clever idea could render this (public) data in their brilliant app(tm) and charge users a premium for some in-app value add (like bows for their hair, or booties for their feet).
I have no idea what the legal copyright implications are here. But the user reach that’s possible if you don’t have to cold-start a network. Brilliant!
Ok, so really, what’s next
Let’s see what the chain can handle….
Thanks for reading. If I got something wrong, please let me know! I write so I can clarify my own understanding of the world.
If you enjoyed your time on my Medium article, please clap below, or share with friends. I’d love to hear from more people about their views on the space.
[1] A Breakdown of double-tier currency systems for freemium games:
Freemium games frequently create two fake (digital!) in-game currencies. A “Soft” currency and a “Hard” currency.
Users can directly buy the Hard currency by swiping a credit card, but you can only buy items in the game with Soft currency.
So how do you get this Soft currency to actually play the game? One of two ways: you can get it by spending hours and hours of effort in the game (often called “grinding”) OR by you can buy Soft currency directly with Hard currency.
Wait… why the extra step? If I can pay cash for Hard currency and then pay Hard currency for Soft… but I have to have Soft currency to buy in-game items? Why? That’s just a weird extra step to buy Hard currency.
Exactly. It’s a weird extra step. And that weird extra step lets users forget that it’s actually real cash at the end of the day. It’s an extra cognitive step to remember and makes it easier to spend, spend, spend.
