By CCN: CryptoKitties, a smart contract-fueled decentralized app (dApp) built on the Ethereum blockchain, was supposed to be the one to jumpstart mainstream adoption of crypto. You know, kind of like the Mario Bros of crypto, but instead of Luigi and Mario, there are digital cats. After all, it was the app to clog the Ethereum blockchain, causing a bottleneck from the game’s popularity that slowed transactions to a snail’s pace. Nonetheless, the crypto ecosystem is still waiting for that one ‘killer app’ now that CryptoKitties and other promising dApps failed to gain scale.

The digital collectibles are worth whatever value people are willing to attach to them. People have even earned a living from buying and selling the cats, reportedly pulling in up to $1 million trading digital collectibles. Back then, which was during the previous bull market, one these wildly popular digital collectibles, Dragon, was fetching as much as $170,000, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Today, the average price is $47.76 on CryptoKitties Saleswhile Dragon is reportedly on the market for 600 ether (roughly $162,000). The average number of on-chain daily active users (DAU) on the once high-flying dApp has slowed to a crawl, now hovering at around 250 – nowhere close to being good enough for wide-scale adoption.

CryptoKittes Co-Founder Benny Giang told the WSJ:

“The present state of the network is not there for accommodating billions of people.”

Does Defend Crypto accept @CryptoKitties? Asking for a friend @kin_foundation @ted_livingston @Kikpic.twitter.com/iA0KMYaw3X

— Benny