Virtual Kitties and Ethereum: What’s This New Craze?

2017 has been quite weird. With the rise of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum has established itself among the top cryptocurrencies today along with Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash. In fact, it has been scaling near $850 and is even predicted to most likely break its $995.99 lifetime high soon if trends are sustained.

So who would’ve thought that Ethereum could be used to buy virtual kitties? Cryptokitties is a game involving millions of dollars and a serious amount of cryptocurrencies. It has been built on the Ethereum platform and people have spent a total of $6.7 million on these digital cats. One particular cat was auctioned for $114,481.59.

These virtual cats, just like your household cats have a distinct genome that stands out. It is also breedable and each one has a unique DNA. This game means that there are 4 billion possible cats that could be bred. And in fact, a lot of people are becoming serious about this game.

Digital Cats in Exchange for Ether?

The digital cats can be bought and sold in exchange for Ether. The average price of virtual cats found in the auction is at $25. However, a good number of virtual cats have been sold for thousands of dollars.

Despite the odd nature of the game, it has overwhelmed the entire Ethereum network. In fact, according to TechCrunch, it was reported that there was a time when Cryptokitties racked up to 15% of the entire Ethereum network’s traffic.

It has become so popular that it has taken up a huge amount of space for transaction in the cryptocurrency’s network. There are some Ethereum users that are quite concerned about this trend since there is a chance that the game is going to crowd out serious and significant transactions especially those that are used in business. There is also fear that this game could raise the transaction fees and even cause serious backlogs.

Indeed, 2017 was really a crazy year.