by pmoriarty on 12/4/17, 1:39 AM
Whenever I hear about people spending outrageous amounts of money for something that should be really cheap, the first explanation that springs to mind is money laundering.
by cdetrio on 12/4/17, 1:51 AM
I met a couple guys from their team a couple months ago at the ETHWaterloo hackathon (post from then [1]). They presented a contract analytics tool to graph the number and type of function calls, like an etherscan.io but for custom queries/reports. The queries they showed had function names like SireKitten(), it was all quite funny and I assumed the analytics tool was the main product and that the kitty contracts were a joke example. Never would've guessed that it would take off, but I didn't see all the cute avatars then either.
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15479945
by iamthirsty on 12/4/17, 12:47 AM
> First off, it’s important to understand that since it’s played on the Ethereum blockchain there’s no central entity managing the game. This means users literally own their kittens. Unlike playing Neopets where everything was stored on a central database and your pet was deleted when the company shut down, CryptoKitties is decentralized and will live forever on the Ethereum blockchain.
If people just stop playing, and the community dies, isn't that the same thing (in effect)?
by archagon on 12/4/17, 4:47 AM
I was recently struck by the thought that the blockchain might be ideally suited for the creation of some kind of "digital stamp". As with real stamps, different artists could publish and sell stamp designs of varying quantities. For uniqueness, perhaps aberrations could be algorithmically introduced based on each stamp's unique blockchain hash. The stamps could then be used to creatively sign communications and transactions, with inbound stamps showing up in the recipient's digital stamp collection. (Or maybe they could somehow be tied in to miner fees, to make them function more like the real thing.)
With the blockchain, it seems we finally have a way of assigning scarcity to digital assets. The only problem would be the social value of such goods, but things like CryptoKitties make it clear that this would hardly be a problem. People seem to love collecting rare things, even if the rareness is strictly algorithmic.
I think it would feel great to receive a communication signed by a particularly rare or interesting e-stamp!
by KVFinn on 12/4/17, 12:56 AM
Are the auctions for cats actually executing on the blockchain via smart contracts, instead of the website?
If so, this might be the first time I've seen something actually kind-of-useful implemented via smart contracts.
(Well, to the extent that virtual cats are useful...)
by jimjimjim on 12/4/17, 1:52 AM
Cats are fine and everything, but how about something more traditional, like flowers or something. i don't know, tulips maybe?
by searealist on 12/4/17, 1:47 AM
This is so obviously the creators of that game making fake transactions to establish fake value in their product. It's not hard to send 100k to yourself for something that has no value to make people believe that it does.
by rudiger on 12/4/17, 1:38 AM
> Right now about 15% of all Ethereum network traffic is dedicated to the game, making it the most popular smart contract on the network.If I still had ether, this would be a pretty strong sell signal.
by lettergram on 12/4/17, 1:14 AM
And that guy was in my startup school class.. lol well, if you're reading this - congratulations! I'm impressed
by 0x4f3759df on 12/4/17, 12:59 AM
by masonlee on 12/4/17, 4:11 AM
Are the founders hoping for additional kitten games? It seems that the game art is protected by copyright and trademark. And the breeding game itself is possibly covered by a patent. But what about representing this kitten data as cats elsewhere? I can't tell from the Terms of Use if this is encouraged or discouraged.
https://www.cryptokitties.co/terms-of-use
"A. You acknowledge and agree that we (or, as applicable, our licensors) own all legal right, title and interest in and to all elements of the App, and all intellectual property rights therein. The visual interfaces, graphics, design, systems, methods, information, computer code, software, services, “look and feel”, organization, compilation of the content, code, data, and all other elements of the App (collectively, the “Axiom Materials”) are owned by Axiom Zen, and are protected by copyright, trade dress, patent, and trademark laws, international conventions, other relevant intellectual property and proprietary rights, and applicable laws."
by AlphaWeaver on 12/4/17, 1:16 AM
I participated in the alpha for this, and it was pretty cool. I'm glad to see that it's been successful, but I'm not sure why anyone would pay to play the game beyond transaction fees.
by panarky on 12/4/17, 4:01 AM
by neuralzen on 12/4/17, 6:12 AM
Similar to Cryptopunks 6 months ago, although they hit only 250,000 USD in sales.
Total Value of Punks Sold
518.47 ETH ($241,413.99 USD)
Average Sale Price
0.46 ETH ($213.83 USD)
Estimated Market Cap
2,899.15 ETH ($1,349,933.50 USD)
https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks
by aqsheehy on 12/4/17, 2:35 AM
Totally not beanie babies
by junkscience2017 on 12/4/17, 3:27 AM
okay, no more complaining about not being able to afford houses
by mattpk on 12/4/17, 2:09 AM
From their FAQ (
https://www.cryptokitties.co/faq):
The developers levy a 3.75% fee on every cat purchase. Doesn't really seem like a decentralized app in that regard.
by smaili on 12/4/17, 1:11 AM
Any thoughts on how apps built on Ethereum will impact the price of its Ether currency?
by mr_toad on 12/4/17, 3:31 AM
How long before we see crypto doggies, crypto magic swords and crypto spaceships?
by JetSpiegel on 12/4/17, 1:16 AM
Just because the current Ethereum value is $1M, doesn't mean people actually spent that much money. They could have a bunch of Ethereum from when it was dirt-cheap.
by Frogolocalypse on 12/4/17, 11:42 AM
cats.com?