Codebase Ventures (CODE.C) Arcology technical team is testing out their network by launching the Ethereum game Cryptokitties on its own internal test net.
The game itself is barely worth mentioning. It was developed in 2017 by Axiom Zen and is remarkable as being one of the first decentralized applications to feature on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows players to purchase, collect, breed and sell their their individual cats, which are represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Think completely customizable digital tamagotchi that you can breed to make new tamagotchi, without the risk of killing them by going out Friday night.
What is worth mentioning is that cryptokitties cause havoc on networks everywhere they go, because of the serious network congestion problems that arise because of the transaction volume. They ground the ethereum blockchain to a halt when they were launched in 2017. The general idea is that if network can handle the massive transaction cost and maintain the load, then it will be proof that Arcology’s platform
Using this example to illustrate Arcology’s speed and scalability provides a purposeful comparison and validation of the platform’s capabilities.
“CryptoKitties was the major event within the whole blockchain industry when the overall challenge of scalability became evident. This Arcology test serves as a showcase, with the goal of demonstrating Arcology’s technical superiority. It is an internal test, a prelude for our public benchmarking and demonstration in the near future,” said Laurent Zhang, president of Arcology.
Scalability has long been the ethereum blockchain’s Achilles heel. Nobody wants to start a decentralized business and suffer from server lag as the amount of customers present and doing business eats your bandwidth. Since cryptokitties first made an appearance, multiple blockchain tech projects have tried to solve the problem with different approaches, and each have been failures. Arcology hopes to buck that trend with the following capabilities:
- Arcology allows multiple transactions to be processed in parallel;
- Transaction processing can scale-up linearly based upon number of computers available;
- Fully compatible with Ethereum platform;
- Popular Ethereum applications like CryptoKitties can work on Arcology smoothly;
- Ethereum developers can start to work on Arcology right away;
- Minimized migration costs.
The test will demonstrate Arcology’s technical advantages, scalability and transactions-per-second speed.
Trad3r
In other news, Codebase has finished their arm’s-length equity investment in Trad3r, a UK-based virtual immersive social platform app that lets users trade a wide range of tokenized options—from celebrities and sports teams to Instagram stories and stocks—with real money, in exchange for rewards from various companies.
“The Trad3r app has a proven track record, attracting users and investment in the U.K. This is a rapid growth sector and the unique proposition, combining stocks with celebrities, fantasy sports and one’s own social network is working to show that millennials and gen Zs are seeking new methods of engagement, and we believe our shareholders will benefit greatly through this early stage investment in an innovator like Trad3r,” said Codebase president and chief executive officer George Tsafalas.
The app was launched in 2017 originally, and has since then reached 4.3 million users and intends to reach 10 million by 2021. Trad3r is readying for a U.K. Tour in March, visiting Edinburgh, Manchester, Leicester, and Bristol before catapulting its international expansion strategy out to over 30 countries.
—Joseph Morton