CryptoKitties to Casino Floor: How Blockchain Breeding Games Paved the Way for Crypto Gambling

The concept was charming. Players were able to buy, breed, and trade NFT cats. Each one of them had a 256-bit genome that determined its visual attributes.

This wasn’t a Pokémon-like simulator. There were no battles, nor was there any skill required. It was collecting in the purest and simplest form possible.

But it was also revolutionary, pioneering the ERC-721 token standard that nearly every NFT project since has used.

In May of 2018, the value of this enterprise was proven when a cat sold for $140,000. By October of that same year, a million cats had been bred and 3.2 million transactions had been completed.

CryptoKitties still exists, but not to the same extent that it once did. There was a mid-migration from Ethereum to Dapper Labs’ own Flow blockchain. This cut gas fees and migrated the platform to a Telegram-based version that facilitated easier onboarding.

There are now lots of other NFT or crypto-based online games, some of which have served as genuine successors to CryptoKitties.

One of the most significant innovations in the world of crypto gaming has come in the form of crypto casinos.

As the name suggests, a crypto casino is a gaming platform that specializes in transactions facilitated not by traditional currency, but by crypto coins. Some platforms specialize in specific coins like Ethereum, while others will accept a variety of different options.

The structure is much more like a casino than a marketplace. The only distinction between a crypto casino and one supported by traditional currency is the payment method. At least, that’s true from an operational perspective.

At the experiential level, there are a few factors that consistently drive gamblers to crypto platforms.

Crypto casinos are chosen not as a way of investment diversification, but for the benefits they provide.

It helps to understand the limitations of traditional gaming platforms. Online casinos have historically been bogged down by two factors.

The first is sluggish transaction speed. Banks have to validate transactions before withdrawals can happen. This means in practice you may wind up waiting two weeks or even longer to get your own money out of a traditional gaming platform.

Crypto casinos, by contrast, allow you to withdraw winnings much faster, often near-instantly depending on the network.

If you value speed and safety, crypto casinos may be the answer to your gaming needs. While CryptoKitties offers novel fun, crypto-backed gaming platforms have a different set of benefits on their side.

They take an existing service that people already know, understand, and, to a certain extent, trust, and directly improve on it. You don’t have to be knowledgeable about crypto to participate. All you need is the ability to temporarily convert some of your money into Bitcoin, Ethereum, or a comparable crypto.

Once you’ve done that, it’s easy to withdraw and then convert the money back into your national currency.

It’s not for everyone, but for those looking for a better alternative to traditional online gambling, it’s a genuinely enjoyable option.