A CryptoKitty was sold for USD 140,000 (203.41 Ethereum) at the first Codex Protocol art auction during the 2018 Ethereal Summit. The ‘Celestial Cyber Dimension’ CryptoKitty is the most expensive in history, outpacing one which sold for USD 117,000 in December 2017.
CryptoKitties is an online game that is built off the Ethereum blockchain, currently the second most popular cryptocurrency and the basis of many decentralized applications because of its integrated smart contract technology.
Users can buy CryptoKitties in exchange for Ether, often for as little as USD 5 worth but obviously sometimes much higher as was the case during the Codex Protocol art auction. The cats have a unique 256-bit genome with DNA and ‘cattributes’, and these can be bred with each other to produce new types of cats. One of the main goals of the game is to breed rare specialized fancy cats which are far more valuable.
There is a digital marketplace where CryptoKitties can be bought and sold for Ether, so it is actually possible to make money playing the game if you have a knack for breeding highly sought after CryptoKitties. Each is a digital asset and has a non-fungible token corresponding to it on the Ethereum blockchain. The fact that they are stored in the blockchain makes CryptoKitties cryptographically secure, and makes it simple to prove authenticity and ownership via a private key.
The featured digital art item was created by art director Guilherme Twardowski aka Guile Gaspar. He showed off the picture of it, a grey-colored cat with a glowing purple and blue orb on its neck, on Twitter.
Celestial Cyber Dimension is on display at @ChristiesInc fur the @CodexProtocol #EtherealNY charity art sale. The live auction starts tomorrow. https://t.co/jkhtKtjsb2 pic.twitter.com/GPX3lAuKEO
— CryptoKitties (@CryptoKitties) May 12, 2018
It has a corresponding physical statuette which was given over to the winning bidder after payment. This statuette contains the private key and has a pixelated display showing the CryptoKitty. This is the first time an official physical statue has been made for a CryptoKitty.
The winner of the auction, Igor Barinov, says he spent so much money on this CryptoKitty because he loved the game, he liked the cat’s attributes, he enjoyed the real-life nature of this auction versus the typical digital auctions on the CryptoKitties websites, and he knew it was all going to charity.
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