> First off, it’s important to understand that since it’s played on the Ethereum blockchain there’s no central entity managing the game. This means users literally own their kittens. Unlike playing Neopets where everything was stored on a central database and your pet was deleted when the company shut down, CryptoKitties is decentralized and will live forever on the Ethereum blockchain.
If people just stop playing, and the community dies, isn't that the same thing (in effect)?
The devs have made the rendering algorithm secret. So even if you have the cat token, you can't know what it looks like unless you go through their front-end.
It’s a good story anyway. On the upside, the tiny sliver of my $20 investment that I printed out is worth low 4 figures. The downside is that I probably could have paid off my mortgage with the rest.
I think they mean that anyone with value invested in Ethereum blockchain (anyone holding ether) is incentivised to stay a peer. They don't need to care about the game, just about ether in general.
Nobody thinks it magically does anything. There's an incentive built into the system for people who have nothing to do with the game to keep the blockchain and so the game data alive.
If people just stop playing, and the community dies, isn't that the same thing (in effect)?