CryptoCelebrities is the Latest Viral Game on Ethereum's Blockchain

CryptoCelebrities, not to be confused with crypto celebrities, is the latest viral trading cards game on the Ethereum blockchain.

The most popular cryptocelebrities right now

The game, in which participants can buy celebrities is a basic form trading cards making use of smart contracts. Each time a player buys a celebrity (card/contract) a multiplier is applied to the cost of the contract. currently, while the game is still in Beta(*), the process is rather simple and the game applies an easy matrix, as explained on its homepage:

Most contracts double in price with each transaction until they reach 1 ETH. Price increase: 2x from 0 ETH to 0.05 ETH, 1.2x from 0.05 ETH to 0.5 ETH and 1.15x from 0.5 ETH up.

So far the platform, which also allows celebrities (or their agents) to verify their celebrity smart contract, tends to have more than 200 concurrent users logged in at any given time already.

Unsurprisingly the most popular cards currently include crypto celebrities Vitalik Buterin and Satoshi Nakamoto, The former trading at more than 20ETH already at the time of writing. Neither contract has been verified by their respective celebrity. Even CryptoCelebrities can not enlighten us who Satoshi Nakamoto is.

Other popular cards are the President of the USA, Der Donald Trump, and tech star Elon Musk. Currently there are little more than 300 celebrities available to be purchased, hoping that somebody else will snatch the card later returning a profit.

Contrarily to the viral success CryptoKitties not that long ago, CryptoCelebrity doesn't seem to have any going for itself other than the main collection aspect, and maybe the simple benefit that you will always be shown on the Ethereum blockchain as having owned our own celebrity. Cards, right now, don't have any attributes though, not good nor bad, and you can not breed Elon Musk with Donald Trump while hoping that you don't end up like Dr. Moreau.

While you might get a bit misty-eyed over not owning Angelina Jolie’s celebrity smart contract anymore, you won’t balk at the return on investment. And if you want it back, all you have to do is repurchase it for the new price. Either way, you’ll always be visible on the blockchain as having owned the contract – even if you only owned it for a few minutes.
Source: How it works page

Despite that, a quick look at the most popular cards shows that hundreds of ETH have been spent already in few days only.

Are blockchain based trading cards games the frontrunners of a new era of collection hype? Or do they need more to break out of the still (rather) niche blockchain culture and to further help crypto find mainstream adoption?

Some days ago onlySteemian @steemitadventure wondered whether SMTs could serve as a platform for trading cards. (Hint: yes, the Steem blockchain can host such concept)

While I personally wouldn't mind owning Clayton Christensen or crypto celebrity Dan Larimer (no Steem celebrities far and wide on cryptocelebrities.co), I would love to own their time and presence rather than just a mention in a ledger.

Without any mechanics like (breeding) attributes, or even the obligation to nurture and take care of a celebrity to me the appeal seems limited. Limited because the scarcity of some digital pixels doesn't seem the same without further interaction, or activity, like seen with the viral mobile hit Pokemon Go, as the scarcity of genuinely scarce physical card.

If trading cards in their most primitive digital form, completely without art or anything, are your thing and you always wanted to blow some crypto on your own celebrity, hesitate not and head over to CryptoCelebrities.

I, I will wait for a slightly more original, or creative, twist on the trading cards digitalization. At least CryptoPunks was limited to 10,000 from the beginning and also included cool artwork.

None of which CryptoCelebrities has but, again, if you have 25ETH to have your own Vitalik... by all means, don't let me detract you.

(*) And apparently unilaterally embargoed until January 31st by the CryptoCelebrities creators.