<story><title>The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/cryptokitties</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mkaic</author><text>&amp;gt; What Went Wrong?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s in the title of the article. It&amp;#x27;s a &amp;quot;Blockchain Game&amp;quot;. That&amp;#x27;s what went wrong. It was a flawed concept from its inception. Blockchains are pretty cool from a math&amp;#x2F;cryptography standpoint, but they really do not provide added value in &lt;i&gt;most&lt;/i&gt; areas people try to apply them to.&lt;p&gt;CryptoKitties is a digital trading card game. You get cards, you can &amp;quot;breed&amp;quot; cards together to make new cards, you trade&amp;#x2F;buy&amp;#x2F;sell cards. That&amp;#x27;s it. Nowhere at any point in this &amp;quot;game&amp;quot; is a blockchain necessary. Nowhere at any point does a blockchain add any value whatsoever. In fact, due to transaction fees, I&amp;#x27;d argue the blockchain actively detracts from the game.&lt;p&gt;The idea of an artist signing their work in a cryptographically unique way is not new or revolutionary, and it &lt;i&gt;certainly&lt;/i&gt; doesn&amp;#x27;t need a blockchain. There&amp;#x27;s a reason the general sentiment the art community has towards NFTs is overwhelmingly negative: it&amp;#x27;s because they literally &lt;i&gt;actively harm us&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>animal531</author><text>Also as Morty would say, it just seems like a pyramid scheme with extra steps.</text></comment>
<story><title>The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/cryptokitties</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mkaic</author><text>&amp;gt; What Went Wrong?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s in the title of the article. It&amp;#x27;s a &amp;quot;Blockchain Game&amp;quot;. That&amp;#x27;s what went wrong. It was a flawed concept from its inception. Blockchains are pretty cool from a math&amp;#x2F;cryptography standpoint, but they really do not provide added value in &lt;i&gt;most&lt;/i&gt; areas people try to apply them to.&lt;p&gt;CryptoKitties is a digital trading card game. You get cards, you can &amp;quot;breed&amp;quot; cards together to make new cards, you trade&amp;#x2F;buy&amp;#x2F;sell cards. That&amp;#x27;s it. Nowhere at any point in this &amp;quot;game&amp;quot; is a blockchain necessary. Nowhere at any point does a blockchain add any value whatsoever. In fact, due to transaction fees, I&amp;#x27;d argue the blockchain actively detracts from the game.&lt;p&gt;The idea of an artist signing their work in a cryptographically unique way is not new or revolutionary, and it &lt;i&gt;certainly&lt;/i&gt; doesn&amp;#x27;t need a blockchain. There&amp;#x27;s a reason the general sentiment the art community has towards NFTs is overwhelmingly negative: it&amp;#x27;s because they literally &lt;i&gt;actively harm us&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reidjs</author><text>More accurately it can be described as a digital trading card game built on Ethereum.</text></comment>