Bitcoin is flying.

For those of you who have bought into the cryptocurrency and are watching your investment rise on Luno’s handy app (you should really check it out if you haven’t), it’s been a good week.

Yay for you.

But while you might have dipped your toe into other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, there’s a new kid on the block[chain] that is way more adorable than you might expect.

People are spending their hard-earned cryptocurrencies on CryptoKitties, virtual cats bought and sold through the Ethereum blockchain. You need the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) to buy them, and once you have it you can sell, trade and even breed your kitties.

Each cat is one-of-a-kind and 100% owned by you; it cannot be replicated, taken away, or destroyed, reports Fin24:

When two CryptoKitties breed, their offspring’s appearance and cattributes are determined by each parent’s 256-bit genome and an element of chance, leading to 4-billion possible genetic variations.

Think it’s stupid?

Perhaps, but people have already spent over $6,6 million on more than 50 000 digital kittens, and transactions are starting to clog up the network:

Prices in this pixels-pet market place on Wednesday ranged from 100 000 Ethereum (around $222) for “Hot Cats Here” – who admits to a “secret indulgence” for steak – to G17 Mouki, going for less than one hundredth of a cent and with a confessed penchant for lasagne and cereal.

And it was only launched last week.

A self-running “smart contract”, the app was created by Canada’s Axiom Zen and is the first “first successful non-coin related application to emerge on blockchain and noted if such applications take off they could prove a rival to the $108,9 billion global PC and video games market”.

Deep.

I wonder if Luno will be listing CryptoKitties anytime soon.

[source:fin24]