[Lon7]

I think the cool thing about this idea is that "cats" is just one possibility. It can work just as well with nearly anything that requires proof of ownership or uniqueness. Maybe property or mineral rights, or stock and other securities, etc.

[ThomPete]

I always looked at it as Pokemon cards. Because it's unique you can track it's history and that opens up for a whole slew of new interesting services.

Ebook's could increase in price when sold second hand (owned by such and such), an open source gaming asset exchange allowing people to buy and sell no matter the game.

Basically it crypto creates physical like scarcity in an otherwise abundant digital space.

That's the biggest deal about crypto IMO.

[jcoffland]

How does blockchain technology keep people from copying the ebooks? Why would anyone care about an abstract idea of ownership of an eBook that you could read without owning?

[ThomPete]

The value isn't in the ebook it's in the history of the ebook. Why do you think people pay extra money for a physical book they can buy cheap on amazon.

It's not the content of the book it's the affectional value of the book that's interesting.

[Nursie]

And how odd that in some situations that scarcity seems to breed value, in and of itself.

Humans are weird.

[nrhk]

Yup, web of information into a web of value which more closely replicates the real world.

Combine that with AR and VR tech among other wearables and sensors and we won't just be digital nomads anymore, our entire world will have become completely digitized.

[xorcist]

While I agree with your argument in general, I'm not sure I understand this particular use case. There is an owner of this game who holds a key and decides when and how to mint new cats and generally holds the ability to change the rules of the game. Without this owner the cats are completely useless.

What is the benefit game-wise to trade the cats on a public blockchain? To an outside observer it seems like the users have to pay transfer fees at the order of a dollar for no particular reason. As long as someone controls issuance (which is completely reasonable for this type of game) they could just track ownership as well which would be trivial to scale.

[tonfa]

I guess it's convenient not to have to deal with a payment processor when selling the kittens. I'm not sure how happy PayPal et al would be to take their business.

[joering2]

From 10 years dealing with different type businesses doing Paypal... they will approve you by default and unless you selling something from their prohibited items list, they will only care about dispute/chargeback levels. If you behave yourself they wouldn't care and I'm having hard times imagining people trading virtual gifts, such as in-game skins, to trigger lots of disputes, because that would eventually ban their PP account rendering them unable to purchase more in the future.

[alexasmyths]

Property, stock and mineral rights come with a massive slew of legal issues which can't reasonably be articulated in an algorithm.

Moreover, ETH in this case isn't really solving a problem for anyone.

That said - there are certain instruments (like cats!) wherein contracts could be designed around the limitations, for which it might work well.

But for the things you listed, I don't think so.

[root_axis]

No, it cannot work for things that are physical because just like with any other piece of software, the smart-contract has no impact on the physical world, thus ownership must be legally enforced the same way it is with centralized systems that track ownership.

[DennisP]

Better tracking of ownership can be a good thing even when you do need another system for enforcement.

For example, a problem for many low-income people in the U.S. is that consumer loans get sold and resold, often with poor record-keeping, and its hard for the consumer and the courts to know whether a creditor claiming nonpayment actually has a right to be paid. This is described in detail by Matt Taibbi in his recent book The Divide.

[root_axis]

> consumer loans get sold and resold, often with poor record-keeping, and its hard for the consumer and the courts to know whether a creditor claiming nonpayment actually has a right to be paid.

Well, a loan isn't a physical object so that example doesn't really apply to my comment, however, I still don't think it solves the underlying issue since the cause of the problem isn't a lack of reliable record keeping technology, it's "poor record keeping" which is a deliberate choice made by some businesses regardless of what technology is available.

[DennisP]

Which is possible because we trust those businesses to keep proper records, instead of putting them on a public blockchain that doesn't require us to trust anyone.

Another example which is physical is real estate records in some third-world countries, where the central government wants to enforce property rights but bribes to the local register of deeds are effective at getting the records changed. (I read about this in an article in The Economist several years ago, so don't have a reference handy.)

[root_axis]

> we trust those businesses to keep proper records, instead of putting them on a public blockchain that doesn't require us to trust anyone

Nothing really changes. You still have to trust that those private businesses will correctly use the record keeping technology. In a world with practical blockchain record keeping they would simply fail to use it or use it incorrectly.

[DennisP]

Not if you use a contract that transfers ownership only with an on-chain payment. Even without that, you at least can't claim you lost the records, as these companies sometimes do.

[guiomie]

The problem with what you state, is that your are pegged to ETH for currency of the whole system and quantified value of such stocks/securities. I don't see many mature corporations switching to this, but ICOs are an example of younger business willing to be 'pegged' to ETH. Some other smart contract platform like NEO support better out of chain functionalities.

[rb808]

Yes and when you want to sell something important like mineral rights you have to line up behind everyone selling CryptoKitties :)

[tomasien]

that's what http://rare.network is building and they'd love any feedback you have I'm sure! The Discord is full of some of the best minds in rare digital art, feel free to stop in and say hi.

(disclosure: advisor, board member)