Mad News #14: Backpack Is Hiring
Backpack will gain a heartbeat in October, Mad Lads collaborations with major web2 brands, Visa integrates Solana USDC payments, the Hyperdrive Hackathon and a new honorary Mad Lad design.
In this weekโs Mad News
Backpack gains a heartbeat in October
Michelin x Mad Lads collab
Visa announces Solana integration
Hints at newest Roster member
H Y P E R D R I V E Hackathon = $1 million in prizes
The newest honorary Mad Lad design
โฆand much more!
View the full Table of Contents here.
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Backpack is hiring
Do you have what it takes to work on the Backpack X project?
Send your resume, LinkedIn, and/or Github to Armani.
X stands for [REDACTED]
Backpack set Twitter on fire with a cryptic video touting an Octoberโฆsomething.
Twenty four minutes later they posted another teaser saying that โX stands for [REDACTED]โ.
Mad(der)Crab David is the newest Honorary Lad
MadderCrab David now holds the shiniest Mad Lad in the collection.
The next honorary has gone out to a true Mad Lad. Someone that has not only supported this community since day one but also supports the safety of the Solana network every single day. Thanks for everything!
-Tristan Yver via Mad Lad Discord
MadderCrab David (a.k.a. MadCrab David before his original Twitter account rugged) is known in the Solana space for being a talented smart contract auditor.
He was one of the first to adopt madness when rebranding Mad Shield, a security service provider for blockchain projects. The Mad Shield team has deployed audits for several blue chip brands in web3 like Magic Eden, Raydium and Backpack.
Mad Shield continues to work with the Backpack team behind the scenes, working to ensure the security of the teamโs next major wave of product release.
Actual GIF of David when he discovers a security vulnerability:
Michelin Lads
X can stand for anything and that became apparent a few days ago when a Twitter Space with Michelin 3xplorer Club went live.
Armani and Monkey joined as the two teams dived into what Michelinโs goals are in web3 as well as what the future looks like for Mad Lads collabs.
Michelin is renowned for their IRL restaurant guides that recognize culinary excellence across the world. The 3xplorer Club is their web3 version for startups and NFT projects that assigns a quality rating and establishes legitimacy.
Listen to the Space recording on Twitter here.
sms is LAD OF THE WEEK
Win the day.
Donโt take shit from anyone.
Keep it simple.
That is the way according to sms, the newest LAD OF THE WEEK.
sms is a founder, creator, NFT designer and Mad Lads maxi.
He tags and trains boxing too, in true Lad fashion he is integrating the fock it mentality in his hobbies. sms has an upcoming fight and plans to rock the Mad Lads brand while he lays a beatdown.
Rune from Maker recommends Solana for NewChain
The weekend started off hot for Solana when Makerโs co-founder Rune recommended that the last phase of Endgame should use the Solana codebase.
Maker is a prominent DeFi brand that released โthe worlds first unbiased currencyโ.
Dai is a stable, decentralized currency that does not discriminate. Any individual or business can realize the advantages of digital money.
This โrecommendationโ from Rune has largely been seen as the deciding factor for NewChain.
I am honestly speechless.
The more code reuse we have across all ecosystems the faster everything grows.
-Toly, Solana co-founder
Visa announces USDC support via Solana blockchain
#Solana trended on Twitter after news broke that credit card and payment platform Visa was adding USDC support using the Solana blockchain.
Visa has been experimenting with crypto payment solutions since 2021 and expanded their existing stablecoin settlement capabilities to utilize the Solana blockchain.
Visa is scaling their USDC settlement pilot to include the Solana blockchain, enabling enterprise-grade throughput at virtually no cost for Visa issuers and merchant acquirers on Solana.
CNBC picked up the story as well, degen poet clipped this succinct explanation about what makes Solana an attractive blockchain for traditional finance brands.
I suspect that the Visa panel at Breakpoint will be packed to the ceiling.
Tylerโs Instagram smells like the ocean
Mad Lads are expanding their brand to web2 users with The Roster.
You can find exclusive content that is not on Twitter by following Roster members like Tyler Larronde on Instagram.
Jakeyโs love letter to Elon Musk
Jakey is known for his MAD MOVIE series, however, the Mad Lads brand is not always the main focus of content.
Curating a group of creators that accentuate their content with Mad Lads branding is part of the bigger vision. Watch Tristanโs breakdown of The Roster strategy here.
Nick Kapule is living in the future
Nick doing Nick stuff has become a mainstay on the Mad Lads Twitter but he posts even more on Instagram.
Pure snow speculation
Solanaโs H Y P E R D R I V E Hackathon
Solanaโs Hyperdrive Hackathon is one of the most interesting hackathons that web3 has ever seen. There are $1 million in prizes and seed funding sponsored by some of the most notable brands in our ecosystem.
The next big web3 project is being built now. During Hyperdrive, you'll be able to bootstrap from idea to product in five weeks. The winners will pitch to leading investors at an exclusive demo day.
The tracks are:
Physical Infrastructure Networks
Artificial Intelligence
Finance & Payments
Gaming & Entertainment
Mobile Consumer Apps
Crypto Infrastructure
Superteam stepped up again and collected a complete set of documentation and tooling needed to build.
Some products by SuperteamDAO give me braingasm.
One week left to register for School of Solana
If youโre still learning to develop on Solana, Ackee Blockchain Security is ready for a new cohort.
School of Solana starts on September, 13th and you can register up until September, 10th.
Tristan tells the Mad Lads origin story at KBW
Solana and the Mad Lads held a meetup during Korean Blockchain Week where Tristan Yver detailed the origins of Mad Lads.
Tristan will be moderating a panel at TOKEN 2049 in Singapore next week.
RSVP for the Mad Lads meetup here.
Mad Media Mayhem: Mission #1
The concept is simple: create to win.
Mission #1 is to create memes of your favorite builders, athletes, actors, animeโs, musicians, rappers, etc. using the Alberts trait.
This is the first of many Mad Missions that will reward creators for making content.
DeFi Land lets the alpacas run
DeFi Land was one of the first projects to launch an xNFT and they are back with an addicting โtemple runโ style game that puts you up against other players on a live leaderboard.
Instantly earn 1000 $DFL after your first game as well as stack up tickets for their upcoming raffle system.
I played the game and instantly became hooked (and ended up nowhere near the top of the leaderboard!).
Download Alpaca Run from the xNFT Library.
Rajโs CoinTelegraph interview goes deep
Raj Gokal hasnโt received much coverage in the Mad News but he is just as important to the Solana ecosystem as the more public facing Anatoly Yakovenko.
Cointelegraph and Raj takes a look at real-world use cases for Web3, scalability challenges, the Solana Saga hardware device (w/ comparisons to Teslaโs early days) as well as strategies for avoiding blockchain outages.
Solana Superteams are changing the game
You could write an entire issue of Mad News focused solely on the Solana Superteams (actually thatโs not a bad idea).
Superteam UAE has embarked on an ambitious project to bring 20+ Solana founders to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to learn about launching businesses in the region.
You can't build a company alone. You'll need lawyers, accountants and investors who understand web3. We've partnered with the best professionals in the UAE to bring you strategic insights and opportunities.
Apply to join Superteam UAE here.
The SuperteamDAO pokes fun at the state of web3 in 2021
Narratives will change, but buildoors will keep on building
How many *cameos* do you recognize?
Solana x Hong Kong
Web3 focus tends to be in Europe and North America but the reality is that a majority of crypto users live in Asia.
Solana ไธญๆ็คพ็พค is focused on the Chinese market and announced that the Solana Foundation has partnered with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Encrypted Fintech Lab.
The Solana Foundation will support the lab to open Solana chain game courses and provide financial and technical support for students' innovative projects!
