One of the Coolest Companies You've Probably Never Heard Of: Dapper Labs
Do you remember Giga Pets by Tamagatchi?
They were found in every school classroom and hallway across America in the 90’s. For some children, this was their first real taste of responsibility. They had to remember to feed, play, and digitally clean up after their pets.
Around 2017, this idea came back around with a twist. Insert Cryptokitties. It was billed as the world’s first game built on the Ethereum network, an open-sourced platform for decentralized applications. The concept of the game was simple, you breed, collect, and sell digital cats in the community.
According to their press release, “When two CryptoKitties breed, their offspring's appearance, biography, and traits result from each parent's 256-bit genome, leading to 4-billion possible genetic variations.” From USV, one of their investors, a CryptoKitty is a “non fungible digital asset” which means it is a piece of digital content that is unique, has a fixed number, and that someone can own, buy, sell, trade, etc.
The game sounds simple, but this is serious business. There are SEVERAL of these kitties being sold for more than 999+ ETH which is the equivalent of $1 million in their marketplace. I may need to get into cat breeding.
What is also valuable from CryptoKitties is the technology that powers this community. It leverages the same blockchain technology as bitcoin to create a secure way to create and maintain digital products that cannot be replicated, taken away, or destroyed.
Fast forward to today and the same people that brought you CyptoKittes have a new company called Dapper Labs. And the ambition is much bigger.
You might imagine that a technology that allows you wholly own unique digital assets securely and power a marketplace around them can be valuable in the digital world we live in now. I think they have a bright future ahead of them.
The future they are aiming for is outlined by their team:
For the first time, blockchain allows for a world where digital assets, as well as online services, can be as permanent and immutable as the physical infrastructure we rely on every day. This will catalyze the transition to true digital freedom, where control of ownership, self-expression, and identity can be back where it belongs: in your hands.
I came to know Dapper Labs through their product NBA Top Shot. The simple way to describe it is it moves the collectable, basketball trading card world to the digital space. Instead of owning a rookie card, what if you owned a moment, digitally?
Case in point — here is my prized possession. It’s a Lebron James Kobe tribute dunk from last year. I own #9 of 1000.
The #8 version of this has already sold for $24,888. Let’s just say the ROI for this digital asset has been pretty good.
The NBA has gotten on board with this already and you can imagine this becoming the norm for future generations across all sports and so many other applications. Keep an eye out for future products because this could be transformative to the collectables market.