The newest craze to hit the internet is CryptoKitties. Aiming to appeal to a broader mainstream audience, CryptoKitties packages cryptocurrency into a cute, adorable, kitten-like representation. CryptoKitties is a game centered around breedable, collectible creatures called CryptoKitties. Each cat is unique and fully owned by the user.
One thing that makes CryptoKitties so special is that it is one of the world’s first games to be built on blockchain technology – in this case Ethereum. Users can buy, breed, trade or sell their CryptoKitty and all this information is stored on the ethereum blockchain. Through this sales market, some cats are going for over $100,000 USD.
CryptoKitty Backlash?
However, it seems that it is not all sunshine and rainbows for the new game. Due to it’s unexpected popularity, there is a massive clogging of the ethereum network and transactions have been slowed down as a result. There are currently over 20,000 pending transactions stuck and waiting to be processed at the time of writing. Not only does the increased traffic from CryptoKitties lead to a slow down in the network but it can also increase the cost of using ethereum as well.
The silver lining here is that public attention to ethereum and cryptocurrency in general have definitely increased. And with issues of scalability being highlighted for ethereum and other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, this might be the tipping point to hasten developers into finding solutions for the problem.