What Are CryptoKitties? CryptoKitties Review

What’s CryptoKitties?

In the simplest of terms, CryptoKitties are just what they sound like —Crypto Kitties. It’s what you get when you merge cats and crypto, two of the internet’s favorite things at the moment. 

CryptoKitties are digital cats made into non-fungible tokens or NFTs. It’s also regarded as one of the first blockchain-based games, although that’s highly arguable because the game doesn’t have any gameplay.  

But game or no game, CryptoKitties was a hit, an instant hit. Within just a week of its release, the platform had already gained more than 60,000 users and had cleared more than $5 million in transactions. In fact, at a point, CryptoKitties was responsible for bringing about 25% of the total traffic recorded on Ethereum at that time.

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How Does CryptoKitties Work? 

When you hear of games, you expect a storyline, gameplay, etc. But none exist in the cute world of CryptoKitties games or the “Kittyverse”, as it is called. 

CryptoKitties is different from other Blockchain-based games. In the game, crypto kitties, which are breedable virtual cats, are bought, sold, and bred. There are four types of crypto kitties: Normal, Fancy, Special Edition, and Exclusive. 

Each crypto kitty is represented by an NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain and the players who breed these cats have full ownership of their crypto kitties.

While there’s no gameplay in CryptoKitties, there is a goal. The goal of the game is to collect or breed valuable, rare cats with special attributes or “Cattributes” as they are called.

CryptoKitties breeding is pretty easy, as any two crypto kitties can be bred. There’s a matron kitty and a sire kitty, but in actuality, either kitty can perform either role since the cats are all genderfluid. 

Players are allowed to breed their kitties or breed one kitty with a public sire. Every breeding session produces a new kitty for you, but the parents need a period to cool down before they are ready to breed another kitty. Depending on the generation of the breeding kitties, the cooldown period can take up to a week or just a few minutes.

The game also has other mechanics, such as Purrstige traits, Mewstations, and others, meant to give the players something to do. 

Players can store their kitties in their NFT wallets. And if you’re looking to sell your kitties, you can also sell them on the game’s marketplace or offer them up as public sires to be used for breeding.

What Are The Features Of CryptoKitties? 

For a game that’s not a game, CryptoKitties comes with many features that give the “game” some level of player engagement. We’ll take a look at some of them, but fair warning: there are so many cat puns heading your way.

Cattributes

In the world of CryptoKitties, each digital cat has its special attributes, which are called “c-attributes.” These “c-attributes” affect the rarity and value of the cryptokitties. 

Each of the cryptokitties has 12 distinct Cattributes which include the cat’s fur pattern, eye shape, environment, and other characteristics. 

Generations

There are different generations of CryptoKitties.The generation number of a CryptoKitty is determined by its breeding history. Each generation has a number that represents it. The three divisions of the crypto kitty generation; 

Gen 0

Gen 0 crypto kitties are made directly by the game's developers; hence, they have no parents. This limited supply makes them unique, valuable, and rare. Gen 0 kitties require very little time to cool down after breeding.

Lower Generations

These are Kitties from the first few generations. They are the second most valuable generation and are closer to the Gen 0 lineage than higher generations.

Higher Generations

Higher-generation kitties have more interesting traits, but they are less valuable due to their higher supply and the amount of time it takes for them to breed.

Rare Traits 

Traits in the Kittyverse are divided into Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Ultra-Rare. And as you can imagine, the rarer the traits, the more valuable the kitty is. CryptoKitties value are tied to their rarity. 

But what makes kitties rare? 

Exclusive CryptoKitties:

Exclusive Cryptokitties are a special class of rare cats only released in limited-time events, partnerships, or special promotions. This gives them exclusive traits and high demand as part of CryptoKitties collectibles.

Fancy Cats:

This is another special class of CryptoKitties rarity. Fancy Cats can only be bred by achieving a specific combo of kitty traits.

Purrstige Traits:

Purrstige Traits were released in the game long after it was released to add another layer of rarity.

Mutation Traits

Mutation traits come from breeding when a trait that was not present in either parent surfaces in their offspring.

The CryptoKitties Marketplace and Token Standards 

The marketplace for CryptoKitties NFT is hosted on OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces. CryptoKitties was designed to be operated using the ERC-721 token standard. 

It was one of the pioneers of the ERC-721 token standard, which was also responsible for formalizing the concept of unique and indivisible NFTs.

Challenges Faced by CryptoKitties: Gas Fees and Scalability 

Despite its popularity, the CryptoKitties game did not enjoy the longevity it could have due to many factors. However, the major reasons identified by users were the high CryptoKitties gas fees and unpredictable markets.

The network was also congested, and gameplay was slow due to Ethereum’s low throughput. All these issues caused many players to move to more efficient blockchain games.

Some players also complained of the contracts being inefficient and eventually the game fell out of the spotlight. Not even all the cute cats could save the CryptoKitties game.

New Developments: CryptoKitties on Telegram 

As they say, “a cat has nine lives,” and CryptoKitties has decided to use one of those nine lives to make a comeback that would revive CryptoKitties future. 

This October, the platform announced the release of a CryptoKitties Telegram game called “All The Zen”. This new game is designed as a “play-to-egg drop” version of the original CryptoKitties game. But it seems this game will be just a teaser for the much larger “Flow Blockchain” relaunched CryptoKitties that will be released. 

Players are already looking forward to the new features coming with the “Flow,” such as interoperability and animated Kitties. Crypto Kitties will also look forward to landing on their feet again, just like cats always do. Perhaps CryptoKitties 2024 could still be a reality.

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