Mad News #33 🧱 Building Brick By Brick
List NFTs on Tensor using your Backpack, stake SOL directly from your Wallet, compete in the MOBILE trading contest, a look at the #Chapter2 madness and Solana boasts most active addresses.
Welcome back to the Mad News! 🗞️
New Tensor marketplace integrations
Stake SOL in Backpack Wallet
MOBILE trading contest LIVE on Backpack Exchange!
New features in advanced trading view
Saga’s #Chapter2 sets blockchain on fire
Hacker House & hackathon announcements
…and much more!
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List NFTs on Tensor using your Backpack 💾
Backpack users can now list, delist and view NFT data on the Tensor marketplace directly inside their Wallet.
This integration is another step towards Backpack becoming the most secure touchpoint available to interact with the blockchain.
You can also accept offers on your listed NFTs as well as get granular with attribute floor prices.
Tensor announced that Backpack is the marketplace’s recommended wallet and updated their UI to reflect it.
The two Solana-based startups came together for an AMA regarding the recent collaborations, inspirations for working together and their experiences as founders.
They saved the major alpha drop for the end regarding a new Tensor Points promotion that gives Mad Lads holders a 1.25x multiplier.
Listen to the full episode here.
- Using Backpack Wallet on Tensor gives a 1.25x points multiplier
- Holding Mad Lads and trading on Tensor may give a multiplier 😉
- You want to go and get points on Tensor 😉
Stake SOL in Backpack Wallet 🥩
Users were also greeted with a new option to stake SOL directly within the Backpack Wallet on the Mad Validator staking platform.
Users have entrusted 702,511 SOL to the Mad Validator.
Backpack Exchange improves trading experience brick by brick 🧱
Simple improvements to the Exchange are being shipped on a weekly basis and users can now view their portfolio balances in USD.
Advanced traders now have access to an interactive order book depth chart as well.
Functions like these are an expected part of the user experience on established exchanges and it highlights the infancy of the Backpack.
Backpack Exchange expands offerings with MOBILE 🪙
Trading of Helium Mobile’s token, MOBILE, went live this week with a trading promotion to go along with it.
The MOBILE token is mined by 5G-CBRS and WiFi Hotspots through both data transfer proceeds as well as Proof of Coverage.
Protocol tokens like MOBILE will always be backed by HNT and will convert to HNT.
abhay from the Helium Foundation joined Tristan Yver on a Backpack hosted Space which covered the Helium mission and discussion centered around the DePIN movement.
Listen to the full episode here.
Mad Lads go H.A.M. in first Mad AI contest 🎨
Mad Lads holders were challenged to an AI contest in Discord last week which ended with 1800+ images generated, 70 submissions and 80 voters.
The year is 2034 and Mad Lads are disrupting the world. Their Backpacks are filled with every tool a Lad or Lassie needs to ship.
Hackers are trying to steal your gold, find something in your Backpack that will help you escape them once and for all!
-Mad AI contest prompt
1st Place Bauzz (3 SOL + CONTENT LORD role)
2nd Place Mad.Jet (1 SOL + CONTENT LORD role)
3rd Place Robin Hold (1 SOL + CONTENT LORD role)
LAD OF THE WEEK: Jakey 😎
JAKEY IS OUR LAD OF THE WEEK!
We have awarded an LOTW in 20+ issues of the Mad News and a Jakey story has appeared alongside a majority of them.
Jakey’s video content has resonated with crypto lovers across Solana and overlaps into the real world in a major way.
Most recently he managed to grab airtime on two of Canada’s news channels, a local affiliate and a national network.
The footage featured his chase for the Guinness World Record for “the most amount of clothes pins pinched on a human face in one minute” while he rocked the infamous Fock It. tee.
He is the first member of the Mad Lads Roster and has delivered copious amounts of Lads-centric content like the MAD MOVIE series, Mad Silent Library and the MAD MOVING TRUCK XMAS PARTY.
Jakey is beloved by the Mad Lads community and was recently bestowed this custom IRL PFP.
If you haven’t already, make sure to give Jakey a follow!
Mad Lassies go LIVE on Sunday night 💅
The Mad Lassies are back on the prowl and teased something big in a recent post promoting their upcoming Spaces series “The Mad Lassies Show”
The Lassies have been quietly putting in work. They may try to keep us down or shut us out, well FOCK it! It’s finally time for the take over 💅
Make sure to hit the reminder button on the space link below, you don’t want to miss the revolution!
RSVP here for the Sunday event.
Metame dApp is the latest addition to the xNFT Library 🔒
Metame is the latest Solana project to launch their dApp as an xNFT.
This is the alpha version of the game and will be updated this over the coming weeks based on user feedback to improve the experience as much as possible. The game will be expanding in the future to be available on all platforms - website + Solana Mobile’s Saga DApp.
The game is currently only playable through the Backpack wallet via xNFT - to download and play, download Backpack here:
https://backpack.app/downloads
Metame is one of 100+ NFT collections that is able to be locked inside of a Backpack Wallet.
“Saga is the worst phone of 2023” 📱
30,000 preorders of the Saga 2 leads me to believe that crypto lovers ignored Marques Brownlee when he said the now infamous words “Saga is the worst phone of 2023”
It’s interesting to note that nowhere on the pre-order page implicitly states that you are ordering a mobile phone, instead they refer to device as a “product”.
we outsold 1 year of saga sales in 24 hours. 30% toward the 100k goal in 30 hours.
we've been seeing 500-1,000 orders per hour. leaderboard is coming, and founder window is limited.
orders coming around the clock because the userbase is truly global.
The hype around Chapter 2 inspired a boat load of user generated content like this targeted assault on a Saga phone by bangerz.
The Saga surged back to significance on the heals of the $BONK run and now operators on Solana are making major offers to Saga holders.
AssetDash said “all current (and future) Saga owners will now automatically be upgraded to Gold Tier on AssetDash”
SolanaFloor reported that “$CHONKY’s DAPP is LIVE on Solana Mobile, all Solana SAGA holders can now claim 300K $CHONKY airdrop.”
Backpack sponsors #Chapter2 Leaderboard for Saga referral contest ✍️
Part of the fervor for the #Chapter2 launch involves a referral contest which promises to rewards winners with fantastic prizes.
Backpack (and the Mad Lads by extension) are one of sponsors of the “Leaderboard” which will track referral link usage.
Solana Hacker House’s schedule scaled down in 2024 📅
Solana Foundation announced their Hacker House schedule for 2024.
The number of events are scaled back considerably compared to the previous two years but assuredly we can expect something special.
Event locations have not been announced but you can pre-register here.
mtndao (v5) hackathon still accepting applications ⛰️
mtndao (v5) hackathon starts in just a few weeks. This month-long hackathon is located in Salt Lake City and will play host to hundreds of builders.
They just announced a special $50,000 investment fund for ONE startup or project that starts it’s journey at mtndao.
DecentraGrants doubles $10,000 prize for developers 💵
If hacker houses aren’t your style you can always participate in one of the many ongoing online hackathons and grant programs.
DecentraGrants launched a new $20,000 program aimed at bringing on EVM developers to help build Solana DAO tooling.
Superteam hosts first Solana Ecosystem Call of 2024 ☎️
Kash Dhanda returns from his sabbatical to host the long-running Solana Ecosystem Call series.
Superteam launched the immersive stream with the goal of informing everyone about the hottest stories on Solana.
Solana boasts most active addresses of any blockchain 🆙
Nansen reported that “Solana now takes the top spot in overall active addresses, showing that Solana season is here.”
This should not come as any surprise as Solana has experienced a massive increase in attention over the last several months.
Solana challenges Spanish developers 🔨
Heavy Duty Builders is back with another bootcamp aimed focused on spreading the Solana gospel in the Spanish language.
The four-week long bootcamp is free to attend and is held completely in Spanish. Developers will learn how to create dApps on Solana.
Helium onboarding 500 people per day 🚗
Helium Mobile’s low cost data plans have spurred a tremendous growth in daily users.
They are now adding nearly 500 people per day to their network and the trend is expected to keep rising.
Solarplex giving Twitter a run for their money 🗺️
Solarplex is challenging the social media status quo with their Solana native platform which injects NFTs and blockchain mechanisms into a Twitter-like experience.
Over the last two weeks they generated:
~20k likes + reacts
~6k posts
~420 nft collections (ha)
~$6 average sale price
~100+ creators signed up
~8000 cnft reactions minted (CHADS)
In over 100 countries and 940+ cities.
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
Lightspeed Podcast
Ryan Watkins and Wilson Withiam join us to discuss their Solana thesis and how crypto has just entered its next phase of adoption. Ryan is the founder of Syncracy Capital (a crypto hedge fund), and Wilson is their Head of Research.
Jupiter's upcoming airdrop will be a watershed moment for Solana. Tune in to find out why!
In this episode, we cover the JUP airdrop, the Saga 2 announcement, why vertical integration is working on Solana but not Ethereum, if validator set size matters, why more Solana teams haven't released tokens, how to think critically and more!
Validated
In this episode, Austin chats with Lev Gelfer and Serge Levin from DeVol Network, a low-cost, fully onchain option trading platform.
Serge and Lev dive deep into complex trades and the advantages of bringing options to blockchain, but at a higher level, this episode is an exploration of exactly the kinds of projects that are only possible on Solana.
Logan Jastremski Podcast
Jayant Krishnamurthy is the Co-founder and CTO of Douro Labs (Pyth).