Adventure Into The Land of CryptoKitties

Today I purchased my first two CryptoKitties on the Ethereum network and I am currently giving them a little privacy so they can breed.

I never get into stuff like this but I happened to have about .09 Eth handy in my MetaMask wallet and I read about CryptoKitties here on Steemit, so I figured I would give it a try.

These digital collectibles are apparently the new big thing in crypto right now (aside from Steem and Steemit, Busy.org, etc.)

One of the many things I love about Steemit is that I hear about new trends a hell of a lot sooner than I would elsewhere. Who knows, I may start breeding my Kitties and making a lot of money as a result.

Add that on top of the awesomeness that is the rise in SBD and Steem of late and the upcoming Smart Media Tokens (SMT) here on the Steem blockchain and I am feeling pretty positive about the future.

Speaking of SMTs, can anyone think of a way to integrate SMTs with CryptoKitties? Do we need to wait until EOS is officially launched so we can do cross-chain work like that?

You should take a look at CryptoKitties. You can buy them and breed them and then sell them at a price you set. Apparently the Genesis Kitty recently sold for over $100,000. As they say, think of Beanie Babies but in digital form which you can breed. Apparently millions of dollars have already been spent on these little guys.

From the website:

What is CryptoKitties?
CryptoKitties is a game centered around breedable, collectible, and oh-so-adorable creatures we call CryptoKitties! Each cat is one-of-a-kind and 100% owned by you; it cannot be replicated, taken away, or destroyed.

When you breed the Kitties you hope your kittens have rare characteristics that make them cute or otherwise attractive and worth more Ether.

In this article on CNBC.com I learned that:

A 256-bit genome for each kitten means there are 4 billion possible variations, according to the company. The primary distinguishing feature is "cooldown" time, or the time it takes a kitty to recover after breeding. These vary from "fast" at 1 minute to "Catatonic" at 1 week and "will increase each time the Kitty breeds."

So, there are lots of possibilities to create very interesting and valuable Kitties. I have seen Kitties that range in look from a sea lion to a dragon to a Pokémon-ish looking character.

However, the ones I looked at were in the .02 to .03 Eth price range and were pretty plain for the most part. I am hoping that I will get lucky and they will have some good genes. I think they are pretty cute anyway.

Because you can't breed siblings to siblings or siblings to parents, I am going to need one more cheap CryptoKitty to really get going on my breeding. That is just perfect because I think I have just enough Eth left for one more. I will have to keep in mind that there is a fee for breeding as well.

The network is running pretty slow. My two purchases ranged from 15-30 minutes each and I am still getting an "in-progress" status on the breeding after about an hour, so we will see how long it takes for these particular two Kitties to breed and then cool down so they can be bred again. These transactions seem to be clogging up the Ethereum network (should have built these fantastic felines into the Steem blockchain), and some people are getting quite pissy about it and "cat fights" are breaking out.

CryptoKitties are currently being created every fifteen minutes by AxiomZen, the company that created these furry little digital treasures. However, after November 2018, no more Kitties will be created by this company and the only new Kitties will be those bred by those who own them.

It's pretty interesting stuff. Right now there is a lot of exuberance in the Cryptosphere and I feel thankful to be able to dabble in the many entertaining aspects of these disrupting technologies.

As always, Steem straight my friends.

This post should in no way be considered investment advice, duh.

UPDATE: We have a bun in the oven!