Since its 2015 debut, digital evangelists have preached how the Ethereum network will be perfect for applications such as managing supply chains and securities sales. What it is actually used for is buying kittens.
CryptoKitties, an online game that debuted on Nov. 28, is now the most popular smart contract — essentially, an application that runs itself — on Ethereum, accounting for 11 percent of all transactions on the network, according to ETH Gas Station.
That is up from 4 percent on Friday for the network, which uses the distributed-ledger technology known as blockchain.
The game is clogging the Ethereum network, leading to slower transaction times for all users of the blockchain, which is a digital ledger for recording transactions.
“The pending transactions on the Ethereum blockchain have spiked in the last 24 hours, mostly from CryptoKitties traffic,” CoinDesk director of research Nolan Bauerle said in an e-mail.
In the game, players buy cartoon kittens and then breed them with other cats. More than 22,000 cats have been sold so far for a total of US$3 million, according to Crypto Kitty Sales.
One of the cats went for US$117,712, although average sales price hovers about US$109, according to the sales tracker.
Each cat has a unique identity that is logged on the Ethereum blockchain.
Axiom Zen, a company with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver that helps incubate digital start-ups and new products, created CryptoKitties.
“We wanted to make blockchain technology accessible to the everyday user, as we believe this is a key step in otherwise seeing the technology adopted,” Axiom Zen communications manager Bryce Bladon said in an e-mailed response to questions. “We wanted to explore blockchain applications outside of ICOs [initial coin offerings] and cryptocurrencies.”
He also said the company wanted to “leverage the power of fun and games” — hence, the kitties.
CryptoKitties is one of the first blockbuster applications to emerge for Ethereum. The blockchain is already used for transactions in digital currency called ether, the second-largest after bitcoin.
It is also widely used for issuing tokens in so-called ICOs, with which start-ups raise funds.
The game is the first successful non-coin-related application to emerge on the blockchain.
CryptoKitties’ success could be a sign that Ethereum might thrive as a gaming platform.
Indeed, many users of blockchains are the same kind of people who already play PC and console video games, and it could take a bite out of the US$108.9 billion global games market.
If the game’s popularity continues to skyrocket, it could also potentially increase average transaction prices. Since Ethereum’s fee structure is affected by demand, costs could go up for everyone.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS