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CryptoKitties(CK)

nft
0x06012c8cf97b...587f8e7a266d
ByzantiumContract #150KSource VerifiedEdit this contract
Deployed November 23, 2017 (8 years ago)Block 4,605,167

The first NFT game to achieve mainstream adoption, introducing on-chain collectibles, breeding mechanics, and ERC-721 ownership at global scale.

Byzantium EraVerified Source

Historical Significance

CryptoKitties is widely regarded as the project that brought NFTs into public consciousness. It validated ERC-721 in practice and demonstrated that users would pay meaningful value for provably scarce digital assets governed by smart contracts.

At its peak, CryptoKitties generated a substantial share of Ethereum transactions, causing network congestion and elevated gas fees. This moment became a catalyst for broader discussions around Ethereum scalability, fee markets, and application-level design constraints.

Context

Prior to CryptoKitties, NFTs existed primarily as small-scale experiments and art or registry projects. Launched in late 2017 during Ethereum’s rapid growth, CryptoKitties stood apart by targeting a mainstream audience and pairing technical novelty with accessible gameplay.

The rapid transition from the early deployment to this canonical contract reflects the realities of early Ethereum development, where standards were still solidifying and real-world usage quickly exposed edge cases. Lessons from this period directly informed later NFT infrastructure and Dapper Labs’ eventual move toward purpose-built blockchain architectures.

Token Information
Logo
CryptoKitties logo
via RPC
Token Name
CryptoKitties
Symbol
CK
Decimals
18
Key Facts
Deployer
Dapper Labs(0xba52c7...f58ddf)
Deployment Block
4,605,167
Deployment Date
Nov 23, 2017, 05:41 AM
Code Size
12.1 KB
Gas at Deploy
3,769,599
Transactions by YearPartial (capped)
201750,000

Description

CryptoKitties combines NFTs, auctions, and on-chain game logic into a single consumer-facing application. The core contract implements ERC-721-style ownership, per-token state, breeding permissions, cooldown timers, and externalized gene logic, with separate sale and siring auction contracts.

The move from the first core contract to the second was not a redesign but a hardening step. The later contract improves ERC-721 compatibility, tightens auction approval flows, enforces breeding and cooldown rules more defensively, refines pause and upgrade controls, and reduces operational risk ahead of mass adoption.

CryptoKitties is a blockchain-based game built on Ethereum where each cat is a unique, non-fungible token with encoded genetic traits. Players can buy, sell, transfer, and breed cats, with all ownership and lifecycle rules enforced entirely by smart contracts. Breeding combines genetic data from two parent cats to produce new kitties with inherited and mutated traits, creating scarcity, lineage, and emergent gameplay.

The contract at 0x5296e8579adf7d11a7663996cd95d9dc14f4290d represents an early core deployment in the CryptoKitties lineage. Three days later, the same deployer released this contract 0x06012c8cf97BEaD5deAe237070F9587f8E7A266d, which became the primary and canonical CryptoKitties core contract. The second deployment reflects a short but important iteration phase as the project transitioned from experimental launch to long-lived production system.

CryptoKitties was originally developed at Axiom Zen and later operated by Dapper Labs.

Source Verified

Etherscan verified
Heuristic Analysis

The following characteristics were detected through bytecode analysis and may not be accurate.

Detected Type: nft

Bytecode Overview

Opcodes12,435
Unique Opcodes252
Jump Instructions752
Storage Operations276

External Links