DeutschIt seems absurd at first when you try to connect cats, or in modern German “cat content”, with blockchain, smart contracts, and Ethereum. And then pour it into a business model. And it gets even better: this business model even works. This is exactly what the blockchain game CryptoKitties achieves. But one thing at a time. The blockchain game was launched in November 2017 and is backed by the Canadian company Axiom Zen. The blockchain app is operated by Dapper Labs. In a nutshell, the players can buy, sell, collect, develop, and multiply, i.e. breed, different types of virtual cats. Memories of other virtual companions are awakened ;-). The highlight of these digital cats: all these transactions run on the blockchain of Ethereum using so-called smart contracts and are also settled in ETH. The fact that it is a serious blockchain project can also be seen from the fact that there is also an official white paper for the digital cats.
What is it about and how Does it Work?
The inventors and developers behind it say themselves: We want to make blockchain technology accessible and, above all, understandable to a broad mass. In combination with cats, which have always been a hit digitally, a pretty clever move that seems to be working out. This is also shown by the figures that are circulating and the investors who have just injected more money again (but more on that later). Starting from the equivalent of 3-4 francs up to 100,000 (!) francs, there is a kitten for every wallet. The mix of cuteness with cats, digital goods, an artificial scarcity, and the possibilities to individualize the sweet kitties with exclusive gimmicks and features, fit perfectly. Several million dollars in sales were already generated in the first few weeks after the launch. The digital value of CryptoKitties is made up of various factors such as the generation (meanwhile we are at generation 24 – accordingly, “younger” generations are more expensive), the characteristics of the cat, which are called Cattributes in the game. These are partly inheritable. And of course: every kitty is unique. In the game itself, you can pair the cats and thus “create” new inhabitants of the CryptoKitties universe. Ethereum also flows here. And that’s where one of the big challenges for the developers comes from: With the success and the growing number of users, the transactions on the blockchain increase significantly. Sometimes much to the annoyance of other users of the blockchain. These think that a cat game should please not clog the blockchain. According to their own statements, the blockchain app has already carried out over 3.2 million transactions on the blockchain and with the smart contracts.
What’s behind it, or “after the Capital Increase is before the Capital Increase”
As mentioned, the blockchain game made good to very good sales from the beginning. According to unconfirmed figures, over 2 million people worldwide are already caught up in the CryptoKitties craze. The fact that a very, very decent business model has emerged alongside the “educational mission” is demonstrated by the investments and capital increases in recent months. And this is quite classic without ICOs. The game provider received a further 12 million US dollars in venture capital financing in March of this year. Recently, another 15 million US dollars were added. Very well-known investors such as Samsung, Venrock (the venture capital firm of the Rockefeller family), and Google (Google Ventures) are among the investors. This brings the total capital of CryptoKitties to almost 28 million US dollars. A proud sum, we think. The fact that the future prospects are quite rosy is also shown by further applications and extensions that are already being offered for the digital cats. In the so-called Kittyverse you will find races, hat makers, and other funny or not very useful add-ons. Comparisons with the super game hit Angry Birds and the huge business behind it.
In the end, it is another very interesting blockchain application – this time in the field of gamification. The success impressively shows that blockchain can do more than Bitcoin and speculation.
By the way: CoinPro.ch is also involved with the CryptoKitties 🙂
