How CryptoKitties became a blockchain sensation
As the name suggests, CryptoKitties are virtual
Everything about your cat, including your ownership and its price value, is stored as bits of data on the Ethereum blockchain.
CryptoKitties launched at the end of November, with an initial crop of "Gen 0" kittens. Similar to Bitcoin's slow release model, a new cat will be released every 15 minutes until November 2018. However, unlike Bitcoin, that won't be the end of new kitty creation. Because of the breeding element of the game, the supply of CryptoKitties is almost unlimited.
If you're still confused, think of CryptoKitties as a 2017 upgrade on the Tamagotchi craze from the late 1990s.
Tamagotchi was a virtual pet simulation game. After buying a cheap egg-shaped electronic device, you then settled down to raise a virtual pet. If you did it correctly, the pet would grow from an egg into an adult cartoon character. The game was utterly stupid, but millions of people bought a Tamagotchi and spent hours nurturing the digital creature.
The key difference between Tamagotchi and CryptoKitties is the cryptocurrency angle, which allows people to trade their virtual pet. Generally speaking, the rarer the "traits" of your digital kitty, the more value it's likely to have.
