

For instance, if you gave someone a $10 bill, and they gave you a five-dollar bill and five singles in return, or two fives, or a different ten-dollar bill, you are not holding the same original bill, but the value you have has not changed either. If something were fungible it could be exchanged for equal value without losing value. To understand non-fungible tokens (NFTs), it helps to explain a few terms that are frequently used with them: fungible, non-fungible and blockchain. The approximate US dollar purchase prices for these NFTs were $107,000 for CryptoKitty #4, about $164,000 for Founder Cat #18, and yes, 600 ETH or about $390,000 for CryptoKitty #896775, otherwise known as Dragon. Since then, there have been some high-priced virtual cats purchased using Ether (ETH), the digital currency exchanged on the Ethereum blockchain. When the game was released in December 2017 by Canadian company Axiom Zen, more than 60,000 people signed up to play, purchasing $5 million in CryptoKitties.

Kitties, which are literally graphic images of cartoonish cats, are bred with other virtual cats in the game.

Now, would you pay $390,000 for a virtual kitty?ĬryptoKitties is an Ethereum blockchain-based game. Would you pay $10 for a virtual kitty? Maybe, right? If you could pay ten dollars and gain access to an online game where participants buy, breed and trade virtual cats, it might be a fun diversion like a game of Candy Crush.
