CryptoKitties & Fun-tier Technologies

Credit: CryptoKitties

Just when you think crypto couldn’t attract more attention, a new project called CryptoKitties is kicking things up a notch. It’s part collectible (every kitty is one-of-a-kind), part game (breed, buy, sell kitties), and all too cuddly.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m hopelessly in love with cats. And that I’m obsessed with emerging technology products and experiences. And I even have a little history tinkering with virtual companions. So it’s little surprise that I basically melted into a puddle when I learned about CryptoKitties.

Hot Takes

I love a lot of things about this project. It’s compelling in both concept (a “crypto-native” collectible and game) and execution (particularly brand and user experience). It also represents something bigger: finally, a “dApp” with potential for broad consumer appeal, and an archetype for a new category.

The interwebs is overflowing with hot takes on CryptoKitties, so rather than rehash them I’ll share a few that cover the basics better than I could:

A Different Approach

The thing about CryptoKitties that seems to get less attention, but is even more exciting to me than the project or category itself, is the market validation of a completely different approach to crypto ventures.

The team is deeply multi-disciplinary with expertise in product, design, brand, content, and crypto/blockchain engineering (the ERC-721 token standard used in the project was authored by one of the team members). This is in stark contrast to so many blockchain projects which almost seem to pride themselves on exclusivity of domain expertise and disciplinary range. The CryptoKitties team DNA is a happy by-product of being born out of an agency (AxiomZen) but there’s no reason teams like this couldn’t form in other contexts be they larger corporates or new startups.

Their process also turns the current ICO nonsense on its head, joining a short list of projects with the same mindset. They started from a point of playful inspiration and then focused on product and users, rather than a whitepaper and token sale. As they navigate product-market fit (now well over $10M in kitties exchanged!), it’s safe to say this process served them well.

Product ought to follow purpose. A utility token sale, if even relevant, ought to follow product (or arguably, product-market fit). And these tokens ought to primarily flow to users and partners who participate in a well-designed economy, rather than just speculate on it. Almost by definition this approach will pay off even if the crypto tide goes out and ICOs lose favor.

Benny Giang shares more about the CryptoKitties backstory and approach here, and it’s well worth a read. I’ve long ranted to friends and colleagues that the most exciting crypto (and, generally, emerging technology) projects will come from exactly these kinds of teams, cultures, and processes. Whether or not CryptoKitties crushes it, the machinery behind the project is the real story.

Fun-tier Technologies

The last thing I’ll say goes even broader than CryptoKitties or crypto itself: thank goodness people are finally having fun with frontier technologies.

A curious thing has happened over the last several years. In the lull between the last technology wave (cloud, social, mobile, etc.) and the next (crypto, AI, robotics, AR/VR, etc.), Silicon Valley has become enamored with moonshots, disrupting industrials, and saving the world — perhaps inspired by missionaries like Elon Musk who have shown no cause is out of reach.

So now, as frontier technologies become ripe, founders and investors are quick to employ them in service of humanity’s most fundamental problems: hunger (agriculture), disease and aging (life sciences), climate (energy), and so on. This is, well, some serious shit. And immeasurably important work.

But to stop our work there would be a loss. There is so much more to being human. Fun, play, wonder, imagination, creativity, learning, knowledge. Frontier technologies will be every bit as transformative for these needs, and I couldn’t be more excited about founders and projects focused on them. After all, once we solve all of humanity’s problems, what are we going to do?