Steemit Crypto Academy Week 10 Homework Submitted To Professor @levycore| The CryptoKitties Non-fungible Tokens Project| By @bukkyi4u

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ABSTRACT

Non-fungible tokens(NFT) refer to units in which a particular form of data can be represented or stored in a blockchain or digitally-enabled ledger. These stored units of data are quite unique and cannot be interchanged.

Hence, they are referred to as being non-fungible. Therefore these tokens can be used to symbolise different real world assets like pictures, videos, works of art and any other in a way that they cannot be changed with another while equally being stored digitally.

INTRODUCTION TO NFT PROJECT OR PROTOCOL

Some projects or protocols have been developed on blockchains as non-fungible tokens. These tokens represent real world assets which are digitally present on the particular blockchain. They cannot be interchanged and have their original owners, as such.

After going through and thoroughly enjoying the lecture which has been presented for this week by professor @levycore, I decided to discuss one of such non-fungible projects- the CryptoKitties- in fulfillment of the homework task given.

WHAT ARE CRYPTOKITTIES

CryptoKitties as an example of non-fungible project is a form of virtual game which is developed and hosted on the Ethereum blockchain and which allows users to adopt or purchase, collect or keep together, breed or rear and eventually sell out or give away a form of virtual cats as pets.

Generally, it is accepted that this technology is the very first and earliest attempt at using blockchain technology to achieve leisure and recreation. Even, it has the potential of being economically viable.

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No sooner had it been released than that it had quickly soared high in popularity and usage over the Ethereum Network. This resulted to high volume of activities and even slowed down the blockchain remarkably in the December of 2017.

THE HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION OF CRYPTOKITTIES

CryptoKitties were introduced to work and function on the Ethereum blockchain as non-fungible (non interchangeable) tokens. It was created by the Dapper Lab Team which includes such big names as Roham Gharegozlou (as CEO), Dieter “dete” Shirley (as Founder and CTO), Mikhael Naayem
(as Chief Business Officer), Alex Shih
(as Chief Financial Officer), Layne Lafrance
(as Flow Product Lead), Caty Tedman
(as Head of Partnerships) and many others.

Meanwhile, this project showcased the adaptation of the Ethereum blockchain which can be configured to host decentralized applications.

However, the CryptoKitty art itself is owned by Axiom Zen and is not hosted on the network. Instead, the company released some of the art under a licence that gives users the permission to utilise their kitty images to a limited extent.

The very first version of the CryptoKitty project was released at ETH Waterloo. This event was an Ethereum hackertoon which was organised on the 19th of October 2017.

As the project was released and soared in popularity the very first CryptoKitty, Genesis, was sold on the 2nd of December in 2017 at an amount of ether equivalent in price to $117,712. Also, it was the highest selling.

THE PURPOSE AND IDEOLOGY BEHIND CRYPTOKITTIES

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The sole purpose of CryptoKitties is just for leisure and recreation. When I was much younger I used to imagine the ability of developing an online application where someone can simply come to buy property and own them online. Such property could include real estate, beautifully-designed exquisite luxury hotels and virtual cars.

However, I was always discouraged because whenever I thought of this project I would often reason, "Who would want to spend a fortune buying an online property which cannot be accessed, after all?".

Well, the development with CryptoKitties has proven to us that there is nothing man can not do in order to satisfy his recreational and leisure needs. The latest victim to this desire is the development of such decentralized applications like CryptoKitties which are meant majorly just for fun.

KEY FEATURES OF CRYPTOKITTIES

CryptoKitties are developed in such a way that they can be bred. The virtual cats come with attributes ('cattributes') which can be passed on to their offspring. Also, they each have a distinct genome. This genome comes in 256 bits. Again, they are developed to have a sort of unique DNA.

Actually, each cat has a total number of 12 attributes (or 'cattributes' as they are fondly called). Such unique attributes include highlight colour, fur, eye colour, accent colour, mouth shape, eye shape, pattern, optional wild, etcetera.

Users have the ability to interact with their pets and they can decide to buy, collect or sell them. The cats cannot be interchanged and ownership cannot be changed without permission.

HOW CRYPTOKITTIES WORK

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Ethereum smart contract is used to track ownership of each cat. The ERC-721 is used as a non-fungible token standard to represent each cat. Creating new kittens would require breeding the ones which are already in existence.

It is estimated that about 4 billion limited numbers of cats could be bred. Use is made of the Genetic Algorithm to transfer all the 256-bit genome from the ancestor down to the offspring Kitties.

This algorithm utilises some processes to transfer characteristics from parents to offspring much like the biological genetics.

It uses SELECTION to isolate and retain the parent breed with the best performance. Again, it makes use of CROSSOVER in selecting the much desired characteristics from both parents and passing on to the offspring. In the MUTATION technique some variant properties of the parent can be changed in order to produce optimal offspring.

ACQUISITION OF CRYPTOKITTIES

Owning the CryptoKitty of your choice would require nothing more than simply going to the marketplace and buying them. Interestingly, you can breed two or more Kitties belonging to you and eventually sell them off.

There are a few steps that can be undertaken to buy CryptoKitties should you decide to use the metamask wallet. They include:

1 Install metamask as a Chrome extension by going to metamask.io chrome extension and adding to desktop

• Metamask as a digital wallet makes it very easy for you to connect to the Ethereum blockchain for transactions and can be used for signing smart contract

2. Purchase ether which can be used to buy the pet of your choice

• Ether can be purchased from coinbase.com with the use of your debit card or credit card. Also, you can simply buy them at cryptocurrency exchanges.

3. Transfer some ether to your metamask wallet

• This step is quite easy. All you need to do is to go and copy the set of public keys from your metamask wallet (this is the metamask address) then head over to coinbase.com or the crypto exchange where you have purchased some ether. Paste the copied address as the receiving end and send.

4. Purchase your choice kitty from https://www.cryptokitties.co/

• The next step is to head over to https://www.cryptokitties.co/ and sign up by clicking 'get your own Kitty'

• Once you have signed up you will receive a prompt to sign in to your metamask wallet from where you can complete the purchase

CONCLUSION

The concept of non-fungible tokens is quite interesting. More so, as it gives us the opportunity to explore the leisurely imaginary world of our own.

The development and introduction of CryptoKitties is one of the most interesting inventions coming on the backbone of this. CryptoKitties offer us the opportunity to enjoy life as it lasts on the Ethereum blockchain while satisfying our recreational desire.