At the end of 2017, it suddenly became possible to collect and breed digital cats using the blockchain. Yes, that's right, people spent over $6.4 million on these CryptoKitties, with the most expensive of these digital cats - the so-called "genesis cat" - selling for $115,000.

CryptoKitties was a unique proof of concept for the blockchain, and now in January 2018, there will be something new - CryptoCelebrities. That's right, according to Product Hunt, it will soon be possible to collect one-of-a-kind celebrity smart contracts. C'mon, admit it, you've always wanted to own a digital version of Tina Turner or Jimmy Kimmel!

Gamification and Steemit

While the idea might sound trivial - who in their right mind would actually spend $115,000 for digital CryptoKitties? - I see this as part of a bigger idea involving the gamification of crypto.

In the digital marketing world, "gamification" is still a hot idea. The basic idea is simple - marketers take a few game-like elements, and use them to create a new kind of user experience that will convince these users to take some kind of action (preferably, to buy or engage with your product). These elements can be simple - like badges, leaderboards or levels - or they can be extremely sophisticated. The point is, they work.

And that got me thinking - doesn't Steemit involve a certain level of "gamification"? You can think of Steemit as a social network or... as a giant virtual game. The "winners" collect earnings for their posts, the "losers" do not. To get people to play the game as often as possible, there are unofficial badges ("Minnow," "Dolphin" and "Whale") and there are leaderboards where you can see who the top players (umm, Witnesses) are.

And there is something else about Steemit that makes it compelling from a gamification perspective (at least, to a newbie like me) - it's all sort of mysterious how everything works. You need to "unlock" the meaning of the game. The more you play, the more you learn. Yes, there are unofficial rules of the game, but no centralized way to distribute these rules. And there are "contests" too, which is another game-like element.

In fact, you could realistically argue that the more Steemit resembles a game (and not a social network), the more successful it will be. It will encourage newbies to collect as many points as possible and it will keep Steemit fresh, without seeming like "just another social network" or, even worse, seeming like work (i.e. "sorry honey, gotta work late tonight, need to earn some more crypto!").

That's why, even though I view CryptoKitties and CryptoCelebrities as being a fun novelty based on the blockchain, they are important in several key ways. They show that Gamification + Crypto is a potentially winning strategy, and they also show what's possible to build on top of the blockchain. So keep collecting those CryptoKitties!

Anyway, if you'd like to read more on why CryptoKitties is such a fascinating concept, I'd recommend reading this Medium article by Tony Aube: People are spending $millions on digital cats and here’s why it makes sense.

Images are screenshots taken of CryptoKitties and CryptoCelebrities websites