CryptoKitties, reminiscent of Tamagotchi and Pokemon, hugely popular digital pets and creatures of the 1990s, is a blockchain-based game in which players can collect, trade and breed digital virtual cats. CryptoKitties was the first Ethereum-based game, and its popularity highlighted many of the network’s scaling issues.
This digital cat-breeding blockchain game caused significant overloading of the Ethereum blockchain, which peaked in 2020. However, the game’s creators were able to solve these problems.
What is CryptoKitties?
CryptoKitties, launched in 2017, was created by Dapper Labs, a company that uses blockchain technology to provide non-replaceable tokens (NFTs) and new forms of digital interaction for fans around the world. CryptoKitties is also considered to be one of the world’s first blockchain games.
In the game, each of the digital collectible cats has a unique genome that determines its physical characteristics. Cats can be bred to create new virtual kitties and unlock rare “cat attributes” or in-game cat features.
Is CryptoKitties an NFT game? Yes, CryptoKitties are unique, one-of-a-kind assets backed by NFT, making them rare and valuable. They were built on Ethereum using the ERC-721 token standard, which allowed for the creation of unique NFTs.
CryptoKitties can be sold and traded, and cats with rare characteristics can be expensive. The rarest CryptoKitty of all time is the Genesis cat, aptly named Genesis because it was the very first CryptoKitty bred by the game’s creators. Genesis was sold in 2017 for 246,926 Ether (ETH), or about $119,328 USD at the time of sale. Since then, Ether has been appreciated as well as the origin cat.
How do CryptoKitties work?
Blockchain technology remains at the heart of this game, but CryptoKitties’ unique gameplay can be attributed to its genetic algorithm (GA). GA seeks to mimic real genetic principles by structuring each kitten’s smart contract code like the DNA of real living things.
Each kitten has its own digital genetic blueprint, which in turn determines what type of offspring it will produce, as well as its unique physical characteristics. This genome is stored in a smart contract, which are self-executing lines of code that depend on predetermined conditions.
Any two CryptoKitties can be crossed together and produce offspring with their own distinctive traits. The immutable genotype stored in the smart contract also determines the phenotype of this new kitten. The GA mixes the code of both CryptoKitties to create new kittens, with the distribution between the parents changing each time they mate. This allows for unique kittens to be produced each time.
The basic idea of the game is that players should breed and sell their cats, which will allow them to earn ETH, especially for rarer cats. Generation and recovery time are two important features of the game. Both are needed to figure out which cats to buy and breed in the selection process.
First, Generation determines how many generations a kitten is from its original parent. New Generation 0 kittens were released every 15 minutes during the first year of CryptoKitties. These kitties have no offspring yet, so if two Generation 0 kittens breed, they will produce Generation 1 offspring.
The generation of each offspring is always one number higher than its parent from a higher generation. For example, if Generation 3 and Generation 9 breed, their offspring will be Generation 10. This information can be found under each kitten’s photo, abbreviated “Generation”.
Recovery time refers to the kitten’s breeding rate, meaning a kitten with a shorter recovery time will have a shorter breeding time. Kittens from higher generations will also have a high recovery rate. Both generation and recovery time affect the price of CryptoKitties, as they determine how sought after they are on the market.
Can you play CryptoKitties on your cell phone?
Those who want to explore CryptoKitties gameplay on mobile can do so using an HTC cell phone that has the CryptoKitties mobile app exclusively installed in the United States.
Technically, however, players looking for information on how to play CryptoKitties on Android or iOS devices can simply access the mobile version of the website through a mobile browser. Serious players who need a dedicated app, however, can currently only do so through an HTC phone.
