{"id":240800,"date":"2017-12-06T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=240800"},"modified":"2017-12-06T09:02:49","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T07:02:49","slug":"cryptokitties-explained-the-massive-ethereum-craze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/240800-cryptokitties-explained-the-massive-ethereum-craze.html","title":{"rendered":"CryptoKitties explained – The massive Ethereum craze"},"content":{"rendered":"

CryptoKitties is a breakout application built on the Ethereum blockchain, and it’s taking over the crypto world.<\/p>\n

Crypto users are going crazy for the virtual cat game, which features collectible kittens with a real-world value.<\/p>\n

The application bridges the gap between the Ethereum “world computer” and a mainstream audience, thanks to its wide appeal and simple user interface.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in the kitty craze, or in Ethereum, the game and its blockchain mechanics are detailed below.<\/p>\n

Game mechanics<\/h3>\n

CryptoKitties lets users purchase collectible kitties with Ethereum, and then breed them to create more kitties.<\/p>\n

Each cat has its own genetics which are inherited from its parents and stored in a 256-bit hexadecimal number.<\/p>\n

These genes exhibit themselves as “Cattributes”, which define how a cat looks.<\/p>\n

Cattributes define colour, expression, body type, and furriness of a CryptoKitty – and players breed kitties to develop rare Cattributes.<\/p>\n

Kitties are genderless and can act as either the dad or mom in a breeding pair.<\/p>\n

Players can also breed their cats with those of other players, selling the “siring services” of their digital cat for Ethereum.<\/p>\n

\"Litter<\/a><\/p>\n

MetaMask<\/h3>\n

Cats are bought, sold, and bred using Ethereum, and CryptoKitties interacts with the Ethereum blockchain to function.<\/p>\n

The kitties are unique tokens which are encoded on the blockchain as 256-bit numbers and can be sent to any Ethereum address.<\/p>\n

The CryptoKitties game runs on the blockchain and comprises five\u00a0smart contracts<\/a><\/strong> running on the Ethereum network.<\/p>\n

This means your CryptoKitties do not rely on a central server or authority for their value and issuance, and may exist on the blockchain forever.<\/p>\n

To get started with CryptoKitties, you will need to install the MetaMask extension<\/a><\/strong>, which acts as an Ethereum wallet in your web browser.<\/p>\n

You will then need to purchase or access Ethereum from a cryptocurrency exchange and send it to your MetaMask wallet to get started.<\/p>\n

Success<\/h3>\n

CryptoKitties has become wildly popular since its launch at the start of December and during peak times it accounts for over 15%<\/strong><\/a> of all transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.<\/p>\n

Players have spent almost $5 million buying kitties on the platform, with rare cats traded for over $10,000 and the smart contracts that make up the game’s codes flooded with transactions.<\/p>\n

This has caused a dramatic slowdown on the Ethereum blockchain, with transactions taking up to 20 minutes<\/strong><\/a> to be processed – and minimum transaction fees increasing to around $0.25.<\/p>\n

While the success of CryptoKitties is great for consumer Ethereum adoption, the stress it has placed on the blockchain means developers face more pressure to implement a scaling solution.<\/p>\n

Raising the miner gas limit can alleviate transaction bottlenecks in the short-term, but long-term scaling for Ethereum will only come from solutions like proof-of-stake or sharding.<\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0CryptoKitties is the most widely-used Ethereum app<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crypto owners are going crazy for a game which features collectible virtual kittens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":240812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[38499,191,47680,42124,35],"class_list":["post-240800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-blockchain","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-cryptokitties","tag-ethereum","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240836,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240800\/revisions\/240836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}