Breeding fees demystified

We love welcoming new players to the CryptoKitties ecosystem, but one of the things that’s most challenging for first-time users to understand is breeding. The cost can seem really high, especially when it isn’t clear where that money is going. So we want to break it down for you.

What the heck is breeding?

There are two ways to get Kitties: you can buy them, or you can breed them. (Well, technically there’s a third way, which is to be given a cat by another player, but that would be free and thus not really applicable to the whole point of the blog post, okay?)

Obviously, buying a cat costs money. No one’s really confused on that point. Whoever is selling the Kitty chooses how much it costs, and players either pay the fee or don’t, and either get the cat or don’t. Pretty straightforward!

The other way to get a Kitty is to breed two Kitties together. You can breed any cats that you own, as long as they aren’t parents and siblings. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, they can all get freaky. C’mon, relax, they’re cats. You can also choose a Kitty that’s been made available to Sire, and breed that cat with any of yours. And voilá, you’ll have more cats.

But why does breeding Kitties cost money?

Let’s start with the transaction fee, which you can also think of as a “gas” fee. “Gas” is a shorthand used to describe the cost of powering a transaction or contract in Ethereum, which is the blockchain network that CryptoKitties is built on. Every time you do anything on the blockchain, someone has to write that transaction. Whoever does is given that fee.

The other cost is the birthing fee. Once again, this doesn’t go to the CryptoKitties team. It goes to the person who executes the GiveBirth function in our smart contract to give birth to your new Kitty.

The breeding fee is currently 0.008 Ether, though it may change in the future.

Where do I even start?

All you need to start breeding is a single cat! Find one that’s in your price range, that has some Cattributes you think look cool, and then find another cat that’s up for Siring and get breeding. Or you can pick up two cats and see what new combinations of Cattributes they might produce! Siblings will often take on different Cattributes than their parents, thanks to recessive genes and other fun biological imperatives.

Check out what’s in the marketplace today!