Digital Kitties on Steem? How would the Steem blockchain handle 700,000 transactions per day?

in #steem6 years ago (edited)

CryptoKitties

Everybody is talking about CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties is pioneering a new form of economic activity called crypto-collectables, but as more users rush to purchase their adorable new digital pets, the Ethereum network is struggling to manage the surge in transaction volume.

How is Ethereum doing?

According to http://blocktivity.info/, the Ethereum blockchain is currently maxed out at 100% capacity. There are more than 21,000 unconfirmed transactions sitting there, just waiting to be processed. Many users are unable to purchase their kitties, because the network doesn’t have enough capacity to let the transactions through.

Screen Shot 2017-12-06 at 12.46.30.png

How would Steem do?

Steem is already processing a similar volume of transactions per day without breaking a sweat. All transactions are getting processed in 3 seconds, and the network is running smoothly. It has already set the record for the most transactions processed in one day, and it could easily handle several magnitudes more transactions per day without running into limitations.

What about fees?

Every transaction that is processed by the Ethereum blockchain requires a transaction fee (called Gas) in order to pay the miners to include the transaction in the block.

On the Steem blockchain, there are zero fees for transactions to be included in a block. All transactions--whether that is transferring tokens to another user, posting content on steemit.com, or upvoting content from one of your favorite authors--are 100% free!

How is that possible?

The Steem blockchain uses Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), which is very different than the Proof of Work (PoW) protocol used by Bitcoin and Ethereum, but still achieves the desired outcome of consensus.

Witnesses (instead of miners) are assigned to produce a new block every three seconds. The witnesses are paid a small fee per block they produce out of the low (roughly 9%, and decreasing every 250,000 blocks) yearly emission of new STEEM tokens that are generated. Because the witnesses are 100% compensated through the new tokens created through token emission, no fees need to be charged to the end users for individual transactions.

Because the system uses bandwidth rate limiting (explained in the Steem bluepaper) users are prevented from overloading the network with unlimited free transactions.

What else can Steem do?

Because Steem witnesses are not required to run million dollar mining rigs to keep up with a highly inefficient PoW algorithm, they do not need to be paid nearly as much as BTC or ETH miners, or use nearly as much electricity. This allows the Steem blockchain to run much more efficiently.

Instead of directing 100% of newly created tokens to pay for miners, only 10% of the approximately 9% the tokens created every year through token emissions is paid to the witnesses. The rest of the new tokens are awarded to content producers and curators for creating and upvoting quality content, and to vested token holders as a reward for staying invested in the network.

This is what allows us to create this amazing platform where users are paid by the blockchain for the value they create! Not only that, but publishers, entrepreneurs, and developers will gain an entirely new tool for leveraging the Steem blockchain to improve their businesses and platforms with the launch of the Smart Media Tokens protocol.

Smart Media Tokens

In early 2018, the Steem blockchain will be launching “Smart Media Tokens” (SMTs). SMTs will allow content platforms and communities to launch their own customized Proof-of-Brain tokens, with real-time fee-less transfers, on the Steem blockchain. Along with built-in smart contracts that enable fundraising opportunities like ICOs and Founders Tokens, SMTs will allow anyone to tokenize their platform and bootstrap the value of their coin by leveraging all the lessons learned from Steem and steemit.com. More details can be found in the SMT Whitepaper.

While the many platforms that will integrate SMTs will no doubt dramatically increase the number of transactions occurring on the Steem blockchain--especially if they involve adorable animals--the Steem blockchain was built from the ground up to handle the load.

Team Steemit

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You continue to surprise me with how much you support Steem/Steemit!

Love it!

Thanks!

Great read thanks.

Shared to my very small followers on Twitter. Thanks a lot.

Finally, I've found the reason for the moonshot! :D

I've tried to upvote it whenever I could find it on Reddit, but it would be a lot easier if only one person posted the link, and linked directly to the Reddit thread so we could upvote it from there :)

Thank you for sharing with us.

Tweeted this very helpful explanation. If I can understand it - anyone can.

This is great to hear. Thanks for the update. Looking forward to seeing what SMTs do for the price of steem. "Early 2018" can't get here soon enough! :)

I've tried to purchase a kitty for 2 days now, no luck. :(

I'm probably gonna get a real kitten before that transaction happens.

hahaha... thats funny...

Hey @acidyo, why do you want a cryptokitteh? I just don't get the hype..

I mean, it's cool to have an active game on the blockchain, but it's just buying a pixel collection, right?

The pixel industry in gaming is huge. :)

It's not too long before virtual goods are a ginormous industry. You are correct, they're just pixels. Still, you don't want to be the guy that doesn't get it. Unless you do. In any case, time marches on. We don't have to agree with the parade of absurdities, but it sure doesn't hurt to at least understand it.

Star Citizen is setting out an adventurous virtual goods stall, and it’s not even out yet!

I could only imagine if that was funded by crypto...

the guy that doesn't get it

yep! That's me. But I hope I still learn some things

Stuff like this can often become extremely popular. Looks at purely cosmetic gun skins in the game CS:GO for example; the rares ones can be worth thousands of dollars!

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. I heard people would pay thousands of dollars for a particular skin, and I would be like:

does it do more damage? no. does it shoot faster? no. more accuracy? no. Then WHAT??

"Looks cool."

I believe it's more like showing off how much money they are able to spend type of thing. The same as buying expensive watches, expensive purses etc. Some people just like to spend money on expensive stuff, including strange, digital kittens :P

Well then @valth, let's begin a new coin, with a limited coin supply of 1000 units, no digits, and to purchase through ICO at one million USD per unit. Let's call it ELITIST.

What do you say?

edit- no whitepaper or use case necessary. only bragging rights

It's not important. It's fun. I watch my cat happy every day

Try to buy it when the US is sleeping and that is around 3am or 4am.

I think, it is time for steemkittens too!
Or any different animals we like,

me like dragons, or ocean fishes!

Isn't it possible so we can have ours here in steemit?

Or what about SteemPandas? Cute, Innocent but strong and powerful

Steempandas will probably be a huge success; especially in the Asian market. You should give it a go!

I lke the idea cryptopandas, steempandas, smtpandas, utopianpandas busypandas!!!

That could be any cute animals and that would be awesome!

Lets hope smt will provide that! It will be huge! IMO

I would love to see us getting our own Steem animal once SMTs are released! I would definitely like to own a few of those ;)

lol

If you’re not familiar with what CryptoKitties is, it’s basically a game for buying, selling, and breeding digital cats.

Sheeshh!! I'm afraid I'm too old fashion for this now. Better I dust off a bit my ancient Fortran & Assembly programming language skillz. And rather try rescue and resurrect a digitally material retro Tamagotchi breeding beast to feed instead.

Well, I mean, to try make me filthy rich in no time with this new generation of millennials already instructed regarding the blockchain. };)

Same here!

I'd wait for the cryptokitties. They don't need their litter-box cleaned. Unlike the spoiled fatasses I've pampered from kittens into fluffy little terrorists.

hahaha... "fluffy little terrorists" :D

I just bought two of them and the best thing about kitties is that it's completely up to the owner, whether he/she wants it to be a bride or bride-groom.

Indeed. Just posted a photo of one for the B&W challenge. I share my life with a gang of three feline terrorists, at least one of which is usually on my lap.

now thats it! lets create the steemit fluffy terrorists :-) food for thoughts lol

I could definitely sell you a kitty !

Real kittens are also a lot cheaper ;)

Not in the long run. I checked.

still waiting for success....hard to buy a new one...if someone build the steem kitten, i will buy it at once

dang @acidyo, you're on the eth pussy hunt as well?

makes me feel compelled to buy a few eth instead of hundreds of Steem when it falls back to $1.

OK then :) I'll sell you kitties anytime :) I've been on CryptoKitties much longer than Steemit.

Can something similar be coded inside an SMT? The tokens of cryptokitties are quite elaborate and require a high level of customization. I would love to know @steemitblog @andrarchy.

PS: I've tried buying a freaking kitty since this morning. I'm pissed at Ethereum

Would be great if SMT's allowed for these things, crypto-collectables fits right in with social media.
A whole market of these virtual things could be created and users could send them to each others too.
Emojis could be reinvented with emojis that have real value.

The "kittie" would be hosted on the Steem Blockchain, the SMT would be the medium of exchange used to buy and sell them.

But the "DNA" and special breeding features...can SMT do that? (Each of those kitties have unique attributes)

The SMT wouldn't handle the "DNA" the SMT would only handle the medium of exchange. The entire code and platform of the "DNA" would have to be written on Steem and then use the SMT as the medium of exchange.

@quinneaker
never knew you also have good knowledge of such. i wonder if the natural eden father will join and grow virtual kitties. i was thinking you will prefer growing kitties you will feed naturally, use their poop as fertilizer and ensure they add to the natural food chain! nice one my one and only @gardenofeden creator!

hahaha yes I don't see my self getting into the cryptokitty thing but it is an amazing phenomena.

Sure . Good I mentioned you @quinneaker on my latest post. Hope you do not mind!

My guess is that EOS can do that for sure as it handles smart contracts? Not sure about SMT though. [unprofessional guess of course]

No. Neither can an erc20. The token is the money, the blockchain stores the information, smart contracts automate actions. Since Steem doesn’t have smart contracts you would use bots instead.

sure! @andrarchy such coming from you means there is hope for me to start learning how to nurse and grow my own cryptokitties. cant do it now looking at what goes on in ether. any tips of how to learn about this kitties or when the kitties will be hosted on steem?

Energy consumption and speed. I can see these two becoming the big talking points over the next year.

Don't forget security.

Yep, steem wallets are some of the most secure crypto wallets out there!

My mind glossed over the hacking incidents of the year temporarily there!

Heck, they're already big taking points, now! Just Google 'cryptocurrency'.

So when do we get steemkitties? I WANT ONE!

Why not a steem aquarium? You can buy plankton and feed it to the whales!

Well I guess this could lead to a lot of people being offended if you start buying and breeding stuff that has a similar name like users

User groups, really. And I think most people on steemit would find it funny.

I'll take 2!

I guess two would be even better so I can breed them without buying some shady "Sire" from the market.

:D haha make sure they are different genders

I imagined them being both genders at the same time like the cryptokitties on ETH.
You know gender is a frisky topic nowadays so lets just skip it and make them every gender at the same time :P

I'll take 4, please. One day my grandkids will call me the old cryptocat lady. I hope.

I only need two steemkittens and breed them! Lol!

When it will be?🐱🐈

Cats. It's always cats. Oh Internet...

img

P.S. This is probably a good time to recommend your ETH-holding friends invest in steem. If they have doubt, send them this post. ;)

someone could create cryptodogs with steem :)

CryptoPUPPIES ;) Actually that needs to happen. Can someone get on that please?

Thats actually a WAY better idea!

I dig that even more than kitties! Dogs are the better cats :D

Now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. :p

Dogs>>Cats

Someone needed to say it. You've now created the age-old discussion of whether cats or dogs are better! (Dogs, obvs.)

This sounds great :D I'm so excited to see how the SMTs will improve the platform! I bet it will be smart to invest into some more Steem before you release it.

In early 2018, the Steem blockchain will be launching “Smart Media Tokens” (SMTs). SMTs will allow content platforms and communities to launch their own customized Proof-of-Brain tokens (at a cost of $1), with real-time fee-less transfers, on the Steem blockchain.

Please someone should explain this to me.
Meanwhile...I really learnt from this post.

Me too thanks for asking!

There is some info here: https://smt.steem.io

There are also a few posts about them if you scroll through the recent (past few months) of history of the @steemitblog account.

Cheers, that link was really useful.

Can these digital kitties wield a lightsaber?

No? Then they are useless.

Steem on the other hand has many uses. I find it impressive. Most impressive.

What about a Jedi Steem Kitten??? The force is strong on this one!!

I concur with this post. As a witness I can assure you I get paid far less than a pizza delivery driver. Can't even afford a cryptokitty.

No, no, no to the idea of SteemKitties. That’s just copy-pasta from the Ethereum network.

SteemFishies. You know you want one.

This sounds great. I'm so excited to see how the steemians will improve the platform! I bet it will be smart to invest into some more Steem before you release it.

That is why steem is better than any other cryptocurrency.. No fee for transactions and all transactions are processed in few seconds.. Proud to be the part of this community!

Steem is definitely undervalued, although I hope it stays that way for a while, so I can accumulate more of it;)

Glad to have you here!

Community Liaison, Steemit

Yeah, this makes Steem pretty uncategorized Superior to the vast majority of cryptocurrency it there.

Then there's the vastly underestimated self-propagation aspect that's created by the fact that you can earn Steem without a financial investment or significant set-up time and know how (comparatively).

YES. Tweeted! Maybe Steem could tap the CryptoPuppy market? #underdog

ive been having fun with this cats until yesterday, currently network really crushed, didnt make any money on it since over 24h and few transactions still stuck

As much as I think Bitcoin is the "king of crypto" it is astonishing that it takes so much energy per transaction. So from a sustainability view point it's great to learn that STEEM/Steemit consumes less energy!

I'd call it the "granddaddy of crypto" ;). Bitcoin is great, but it was literally designed to be inefficient. It will have its place in the future, and it might be incredibly valuable, but it won't be powering real-time applications, certainly not directly on-chain.

This point is critical. Bitcoin is like the oldest son who got a PhD. Everyone is giving it all of the love and attention. Meanwhile his younger brother, Einstein, is still in middle school so nobody notices yet...

Hahaha well said

That's probably a better moniker "granddaddy crypto"! At any rate I'm very glad to be involved with Steemit!

It's great to be involved in them all! At Steemit we love all cryptocurrencies and blockchains that help make the world a better place. The goal should be to create blockchains and cryptocurrencies that solve different problems than the others.

having Steem Kittens would be a great way to draw attention to the efficiency of the steem blockchain. I hope somebody is working on it as I type. Clearly the beginning of a new fad

Ok, all of us understand now that steem is better then ethereum, we love it,
But when are we going to have steemkitties? That we can own using steem.

Good job! Thanks to @yuni28 you have planted 0.13 tree to save Abongphen Highland Forest in Cameroon. Help me to plant 1,000,000 trees and share my Steem Power to the others. Selfvoting is prohibited, but that should be the reason to spread the world to protect our precious environment. Check out profile of our conservation association @kedjom-keku and the founder/coordinator @martin.mikes to get more information about our conservation program. My current SP is 14413.21. Help me to plant more trees with your delegated SP.

Thanks a lot,
your @treeplanter
www.kedjom-keku.com

My FAVORITE thing about these silly crypto cats is that is points out just how awesome Steem is!

Full Steem Ahead!

In other words... Steemit could seriously kick that Ethereum ass! 🐳

Another method for others to take away my hard earn cryptos. Go away cryptokitties. I am desperately trying to stay away.

Waiting for smt so!

With the various hiccups that have occurred on the Steem blockchain from the Steemit standpoint, I consider this a very bold statement.

Do I doubt that the Steem blockchain could handle the 70k+ transactions from the silly kitty app? No.

Do I doubt that the Steem blockchain would handle the 70k+ transactions from the silly kitty app, plus all of the other transactions currently running on the Steem blockchain, without any hiccups? Yes.

Is this a perfect test case for the Steem blockchain? Yes.

Try marketing the idea to the Ethereum app people.. or build your own version of the kitty app on Steem.. Lure them with the rewards aspect. I'm sure they'd love to earn money (Steem) on top of earning money (cash)!

To add the (current) kitty traffic to the Steem blockchain on top of what is already there would basically just be doubling what we are doing today. This is not really that huge of an increase. We are far from capacity as far as the number of transactions we can process. Bring on the kitties! :)

[Edit] also, the recent performance issues a few weeks back was from the Steemit.com website, not the Steem blockchain. There is a difference.. Steemit.com is just a front end website that renders data and allows users to interact with the blockchain. There were some scaling issues with that, but they were addressed - and at no time was the stability of the blockchain impacted.

So should I prepare the litterbox? Tell me steemit.inc is working on it!

Something along those lines would be an awesome concept for a community developer to take on. I’m not sure how it would be done, or what exactly they would build (I’m hoping it would be more than just a copycat), but we are a creative community - I’m sure we can think of something cool!

Yup. We are laser focused on SMTs, HF20, the mobile wallet, and Hivemind. The Steem blockchain is a protocol and our mission is to make it ideal for developers who want to create applications like this, not to make the apps ourselves.

The mobile wallet, if similar to other secure wallets that provide owners with access to their private keys, sounds like a great concept and is something I would be greatly interested in!

Similar, but even more secure :) Coming soon

Yeah, this is spot on. There have been no issues with the Steem blockchain.

If you re-read my post, you will notice that I said NOTHING about there being a problem with the STEEM Blockchain. Thanks for your interest.

I'm not trying to say it can't be done. I'm just nowhere near as confident as you are about the lack of downstream impacts.

Historically, there have been several hiccups (at least on the Steemit front) where significantly increased activity on the Steem blockchain has disrupted the "face of Steem" (also referred to as the Steemit website).

Simply because the Steem Blockchain is functioning as planned, doesn't change the fact that the majority of Steem in circulation exists on Steemit. If Steemit is disrupted, Steem therefore becomes less valuable.

At least until SMTs come out and become more profitable than Steemit and people cash in their stake...

Simply because the Steem Blockchain is functioning as planned, doesn't change the fact that the majority of Steem in circulation exists on Steemit. If Steemit is disrupted, Steem therefore becomes less valuable.

Sorry, but this is not how it works. The STEEM that you see in your Steemit.com wallet, is actually in your Steem blockchain wallet. The website just shows you the tokens that exist in your blockchain account. You could use any other Steem wallet interface (example Vessel) and you would see the same tokens there.

Yeah this is so inaccurate it's "not even wrong." It doesn't even make sense.

While that may not be "how it works", I would be willing to state, with a large probability of accuracy, that 80% or more of current, active, Steemit users do NOT use any other interface for their Steem Wallet outside from Steemit.

The performance issues have been addressed, and the dev team continues to work on more improvements. There are multiple wallets available as a work around if there ever is an issue. I don’t think there is as big of a problem as you think there is.

I'm not saying that there is a problem currently. I'm just saying that history has proven that when significantly increased load has been added on the Steem blockchain, the Steemit page has suffered.

That is all.

Again, I haven't said that I don't think it will work. I agree that the Steem blockchain will survive. I am, however, skeptical about the level of success and speed of recovery from any potential issues that may arise from such a significant increase in transactions.

Side-question, along the same lines as the context of your post here ... Is it possible to "Power Down" from these other wallets? Or the future mobile wallet that @andrarchy mentioned above?

Yes, of course it is. The steemit website is just an interface to the blockchain - you can use any other interface to interact with it to perform any functions, including wallet based ones.

I understand the concept of Steemit being connected to the Blockchain of Steem. I also understand how the back-end data is stored, at least from the SteemSQL side.

Where I fall short is with the various apps, because I (along with the majority of other non-developers) have no incentive to use additional APIs to connect to the Steem Blockchain outside of the Steemit webpage.

If Steemit failed, I would research and try to become more savvy with such an endeavor, however as there is no current need (or a foreseeable future need), I have not invested my time with researching alternatives to what is already woking. With that said, you have physically used and accessed a wallet other than on Steemit's webpage, which includes Power Down functionality?

P.S. I liked your video on how to code a Steem app for posting content within 9 minutes.

Steem=Hiccups, Ethereum=Heart Attack

I want them all!

Interesting thought

We will be seeing many new applications with real utility. May goods and services finally get their value when their digital properties have culminated their final position. For instance, a part in a car, or an airticket. In those cases, the airticket is only worth something when the passenger has arrived in the final destination, and a car part has no utility until it is in its final position.

Why is this post 'payout declined'?

Ethereum is slowing down. The fee is also very high. Steem technology is far better.

Why not create a cryptodoggies in the steem blockchain...anyone? I bet it would be better if not the best!

This sounds great :D I'm so excited to see how the SMTs will improve the platform! I bet it will be smart to invest into some more Steem before you release it.

Speedily
Transacting
Energy
Efficient
Meows

I've been on the fence about getting one of those digital kittens for a while now. But man would I love to see something like this in the Steem ecosystem!

I suppose Steempunk.net is the closest thing to a game on the Steem blockchain currently, but the real beauty of the kittens is in their simplicity. No thinking or significant time investment required.

I think Steem is the most undervalued blockchain out there at the moment, SMT might give birth to some killer application and definitely revolutionize social network.

i dont get it .what can i do with the kitty ?

This again proves the immense power of Steem. I keep telling myself I have to invest more into Steem, but knowing myself, I will probably wait until it's too late:p

Well i do think Steemit is more powerful than Ethereum in many terms, without said that there is only 3sec transaction time that is super fast.
More often the Cryptokitties is getting more popular and the Ethereum blockchain will be down for a while.

Cat shenanigans in the blockchain? Purrrfect!

Is it possible that steem will have steemkittens?
I love too
Its more exciting,
I can't do it in ethereum, not now that the transaction is clog

Can we have steemkittens?
It is adorabble! 🐈

Or it could be not only kittens, how about different animals
Or about the redfish, minnows, dolphin, orcas and whales to play with?
Isn't it cool?

I think it is cool!

Dev, can you have this idea in steem blockchain?

Come and build this on steem blockchain!, it will prove the value of steem over ethereum and any other blockchain!... Thumbs up!

Yeah. There is usually a cat around in every major revolution...

In the comparisons shown in the Post between Esteem and ethereum , there are clear differences in the Steemm coin as the best, while the difference in price is very much in favor of the ether. However, after this comparison, I have no doubt that he will overcome his work. Btc

greetings

Is it just me or has the world gone mad digital cats I just can't see the value in them

Loved your article.

According to ETH Gas Station, the CryptoKitties game accounts for over's 10% of network traffic on Ethereum. As traffic increases, transactions become more expensive to execute quickly.
https://steemit.com/cryptokitties/@kushagrasingh/crypto-kitties-your-digital-blockchain-collectibles

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