CryptoKitties is "Bringing the Blockchain to Life" Using Art. And Cats.

On September 1, CryptoKitties, in partnership with Meural, will unveil an art exhibit at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. The exhibit, "Bringing Blockchain to Life," will showcase the inner workings of blockchain technology in real-time. Adorable digital cats are expected to be a dominant feature in the work.

CryptoKitties caught the public's attention when the product launched in late 2017, with the game's popularity overloading Ethereum, the world's second largest blockchain. The game is the first commercially successful consumer product to leverage blockchain technology, with tens of millions of US dollars in transactions having been conducted on the platform to date.

Due to CryptoKitties' breakout success, Axiom Zen, the company that created CryptoKitties, spun out a new company earlier this year called Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs raised $12.85M this year from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures.

CryptoKitties is also lauded for pioneering a use case for blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrencies. Often referred to as "cryptocollectibles" or "non-fungible tokens", the philosophy and technology behind CryptoKitties serves as a proof of concept for blockchain's potential to reshape art and culture. Like traditional works of art, each CryptoKitty is distinct, and has valuations for individual cats ranging from six cents to six-figures. In May, a CryptoKitty displayed at Christie's Auction House in New York sold for US$140,000, with proceeds funding the Foundation for Art & Blockchain.

"CryptoKitties' good design and appealing aesthetics are responsible for introducing entirely new audiences to the potential of blockchain technology," says Roham Gharegozlou, co-founder and CEO of CryptoKitties. "Emerging technology often has its most innovative work conducted in the art world - the Kitties are artworks themselves. Our exhibit at ZKM continues our mission of demystifying the blockchain so that the people that can benefit from it most - whether they're creators and consumers, or artists and their fans - can be a part of the technology's future."

CryptoKitties' "Bringing Blockchain to Life" exhibit will be featured as part of ZKM's ongoing, boundary pushing "Open Codes" exhibition. According to ZKM's website, the exhibition's works will "visualize and explain the complex dynamics of codes, and the way in which they are increasingly shaping the way we live and perceive the world." Meural's digital art canvases will display CryptoKitties as digital artworks.

"We're excited to be able to help CryptoKitties make their museum debut by providing them with a physical home that's worthy of a museum setting", says Vladimir Vukicevic, co-founder and CEO of Meural. "Our product, the Meural Canvas, is an ideal way for crypto art enthusiasts to show off their collectibles in a way that does justice to their value, and makes them easy to display and enjoy. By partnering with CryptoKitties for this event, we hope to help general audiences envision how cryptocollectibles might fit into their everyday lives."

About CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties is the world's most successful blockchain game; since launching, tens of millions of US dollars in transactions have been conducted on the platform, with some of the game's most popular cats selling for the equivalent of more than US$100,000. Unlike cryptocurrencies, CryptoKitties are individually unique digital assets akin to digital art. CryptoKitties was created by Axiom Zen and spun out into a new company called Dapper Labs in February 2018, raising $12.85M from leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and the founders of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList, among others. For additional context or access to key team members, please contact [email protected]

About Meural
Meural combines the best of art, technology, and design to create products that make us feel something. They are building a future in which art fills every blank wall, and everyone can become a patron of the arts. To that end, they've developed a patented platform for discovering, customizing, and interacting with visual art in your everyday life. Through both their hardware product, the Meural Canvas smart frame, and my.meural-the expertly-curated library that powers it-the Meural platform empowers users to display over 30,000 artworks, and interact with them using voice, gesture, web, or mobile app.

Website: Meural.com 
Art Library: my.meural.com 
Find Meural at: @meetmeural on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest

About ZKM 
The ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe is a unique cultural institution worldwide, because it is a place that expands the original tasks of the museum.

It is a house of all media and genres, a house of both spatial arts such as painting, photography, and sculpture and time-based arts such as film, video, media art, music, dance, theater, and performance. The ZKM was founded in 1989 with the mission of continuing the classical arts into the digital age.

For additional context or access to key team members, please contact [email protected] , +1(604)-366-3122