Mad News #42 📖 Life, The Universe And Everything
An update on Pre Season trading, Exchange launches WEN token support, Backpack aggressively expanding staff, #OnlyPossibleOnSolana campaign reemerges and XPUNKS bridges collection from XRP to Solana.
Welcome to the Mad News! 🗞️
The future of Pre Season trading event
Pre Season snapshot data ($27.5B in total volume)
WEN token launched ahead of Phase Two
Backpack aggressively expanding staff
#OnlyPossibleOnSolana campaign is back
XPUNKS bridges collection from XRP to Solana
…and much more!
Headlines 📺
TechCrunch - How crypto exchange Backpack climbed its way to success after its major investor FTX die
CoinDesk - Crypto Exchange Backpack Appoints Stripe, Banking Veteran as CFO
JinaCoin - Backpackとは？特徴や使い方を解説【仮想通貨ウォレット】
Snapshot #1 wasn’t a Rick Roll (or was it?) 📸
Snapshot #1 of the Pre Season trading event was taken on March 18th at 11PM UTC (8AM Japan).
More than 75,000 traders generated $27.5 billion in total volume with a majority of participants trading $10,000 USD or more .
4,800 traded more than $1,000,000.
The Backpack Exchange is undergoing major database upgrades over the weekend and details regarding Phase 2 of the Pre Season event will be announced next week.
From February 13th to March 18th we:
- Filled 259m orders, ~5,000 per minute. [see data here]
- KYC'd 252k new users, creating a total of 560k--of which 337k traded during the Pre Season.
- Custodied $141 million worth of tokens on chain.
- Facilitated 526k deposits and 266k withdrawals. That's ~792,000 transactions on the Solana network.
wen WEN? Exchange launches trading support for new token ⏱️
Early users of Backpack have been clamoring for WEN support since the token launched on January 26th.
Support for WEN launched on March 19th along with an assurance that monitoring of trading is ongoing between the close of Phase 1 and beginning of Phase 2.
WEN has emerged as one of the most significant meme tokens of the 2024 cycle and with a die hard cadre of fans.
Backpack staff grows to 40+ strong and is still looking for talent 🏢
Backpack Wallet and Exchange was built with an agile development process which resulted in massive results from a small team.
The time has come to scale operations.
The team is looking for shippers on both the Technical and Business Development side of operations with plans to onboard more employees throughout 2024.
View the Backpack Recruitment application here.
WTF are websockets? 🔌
Websockets allow the Backpack Exchange to provide uninterrupted service and real time chart views for traders.
Armani Ferrante reported that Backpack’s websockets were pushing 500 MB/s on March 12th.
The rate has doubled since then.
The Backpack Exchange transmitting 1GB/s out through websockets today.
Holy smokes.
-Armani Ferrante, March 17th
I asked ChatGPT for a websocket ELI5:
Imagine if a WebSocket were like a two-lane highway between your computer (the client) and a website's server.
Unlike a traditional road (HTTP) where you have to stop at a toll booth (send a request) and wait for the gate to open (get a response) every time you want to pass through, this highway lets cars (data) travel freely in both directions without stopping.
Think of it as having a walkie-talkie connection with a friend.
With older tech (HTTP), you'd have to call your friend, wait for them to pick up, talk, and then hang up every single time you wanted to say something.
But with a WebSocket (the walkie-talkie), once you're both on the line, you can talk and listen any time you want, instantly. This is perfect for when you're playing a video game online and need to chat in real-time, or in a group chat where messages pop up instantly without needing to refresh the page.
Tristan Yver sits down with Incrypted for a long form interview 🎤
Mad Lads don’t read but you may want to scroll through this one.
Tristan Yver goes deep about the origins of Backpack, fund raising, enduring the 2023 crypto crash and a definitive answer on “wen Backpack token?”
We’ll continue to add more tokens. We’re working on futures for the exchange right now as well. We’ll add Bitcoin, we’ll add Ethereum, ERC-20s.
Just really continuing to flesh out our product offering and make it so that people feel compelled to use Backpack Exchange as their primary exchange.
On the wallet side, we just want to keep continuing to improve the user experience. We want to be the primary wallet that people use in the Solana ecosystem; that’s our goal there.
-“WeChat for crypto: an interview with Backpack co-founder Tristan Yver”
LAD OF THE WEEK: Rolex Gold ⌚
Rolex Gold is our LAD OF THE WEEK!
Some Lads bullpost.
Some Lads shitpost.
Some Lads shill.
Rolex Gold checks all those boxes and more.
Don’t get Mad
Get a Lad
This LTLH (Long Term Lad Holder) falls into the cut of Mad Lad fan which shows up to represent the community every single day.
Communities like the Mad Lads owe their strength to members like Rolex Gold who exude positivity and respect in their day to day interactions.
Make sure to give Rolex Gold a follow if you haven’t already!
Metame has a long history of building xNFTs 🎴
Metame established their presence in the xNFT Library back in 2023 with the relese of Card Crush.
They just released a major update for the game alongside a 100M BONK rewards program that will be distributed to players.
Game mode is now geared around rewarding daily play. A new initial layout goes live every day at midnight UTC
Streak mechanic added, so showing up daily will build up a streak. Consistent players will get the most points and highest streak, and in turn the highest rewards
Download the Card Crush xNFT here.
Note: xNFTs must be launched via xNFT Library website.
Here’s to another four years of Solana 🎴
Solana’s fourth Mainnet launch anniversary was an opportunity for the entire community to take a look back at what we have accomplished.
It’s been an honor to support bringing Toly’s wild vision to life.
The citizens that brought it to this point include, but are not limited to: core engineers, validators, app developers, content creators, DePIN hardware operators, traders, exchanges, stablecoin issuers, fortune 500 enterprises, enthusiasts, journalists, and our families.
Thank you to all who have made the ecosystem your own. it’s an honor to serve you however possible.
May we ever be as fearless in fearful times, as we were at launch. onward and upward.
Solana launched on March 16th, 2020 amidst COVID lockdowns and an uncertainty about the future which modern humanity had not experienced.
Since then the blockchain ecosystem has defied all expectations.
A community driven movement has grown by leaps and bounds into an industry that is changing the world.
🫡 Happy Genesis Day 2024 to all who celebrate! 🫡
Thank you to all the builders around the globe who have made Solana what it is today — 4 years in, we're just getting started 🫡
Dozens of IRL birthday parties were organized by Solana’s regional communities in India, Germany, France, Nigeria and many more locations across the world.
Although we are celebrating the fourth anniversary of Solana’s launch, the real story started seven years ago.
Solana’s Origins:
2017 - Anatoly Yakovenko drafts the first Solana whitepaper which outlines a new concept called Proof of History (PoH).
2018 - The initial Solana Labs core team forms, releases the official whitepaper and launches an internal Testnet. Team begins raising development funds via Multicoin Capital.
2019 - Solana Labs development work continues at high pace, they host the first incentivized Testnet event called Tour de SOL and the Series A round closes with $20M generated in private token sales.
2020 - Solana debuts Mainnet and the first block is created on March 16th, 2020.
Ich bin ein Berliner Build Station! 🇩🇪
Superteam Germany has cemented their hacker houses as the standard for community organized events.
🛠️ Build more.
🏗️ Build better.
👷♂️👷♀️ Build together.
🚧 Build Station Berlin starts tomorrow.
🚀 Join us for Launch Day at w3.fund!
Colosseum’s Renaissance hackathon is underway and the Build Station Berlin is empowering builders who are racing the clock to ship a novel product.
w3.fund is hosting the three week long event (March 19-April 9) which is packed with panels, speakers and special pop in guests.
Registrations will stay open throughout the event, sign up here.
Solana has their own weekly newsletter 🗞️
Solana’s weekly community update newsletter provides a focused look at what the biggest projects in the ecosystem are working on.
Stories in the newsletter may be aged (up to four months in some cases) but it is a great overview of the broader Solana world.
Sign up for the Solana Community Updates here.
Subscribe to the Mad News first 😉
#OnlyPossibleOnSolana defining a generation of products 💡
The #OnlyPossibleOnSolana campaign is the longest running and most impactful marketing journey that the Solana Foundation has embarked on.
The series focuses on eloquent Solana founders who recognize the benefits of building on a high speed, low transaction cost blockchain.
Vibhu Norby is no stranger to Mad News fans and is the most recent focus of the OPOS content series.
Vibhu heads up DRiP, the cNFT distribution platform that has placed JPEGS in more wallets than any other single source.
DRiP has began ramping up it’s IRL offerings and (Run) DMC has a massive following that has flourished over three decades.
Learn more about Vibhu, DRiP and what is possible on Solana in our Mad News interview.
XPUNKS is bridging collection from XRP Ledger to Solanac ✖️
It wasn’t long ago that projects were scrambling to leave the Solana blockchain and migrate to alternatives like Ethereum and Polygon.
XPUNKS represents a major shift in that sentiment and is onboarding their XRP originated project to Solana.
One thing is sure: SOL NFT culture fits our brand and community much better than the XRPL.
The number of people who were excited about us coming over was incredible. The joy, the vibes, and the love.
That is what we need as a community to grow.
XPUNKS is the most notable project on XRP Ledger and commands a significant community of blockchain builders.
According to data from the XRP explorer Bithomp, XPUNKS has traded 6,947 NFTs, generating sales totaling $9,648,793.76. This accounts for 35.64% of all NFT sales on the XRP ledger.
Hivemapper is slowly but surely taking over the world 🚗
The Hivemapper community has mapped 15% of the global road network in just 14 months.
That represents nearly 9M kilometers (5.5M millions for our American, Burmesee and Liberian friends).
Hivemapper started with a bold dream: millions of people working together to build the world's freshest map, sharing the rewards of what they built.
We're humbled by how many people share our dream -- now at 30,000 preorders.
When we work together, anything is possible. #DePIN
Their next offering is called Bee, a smart dashcam that captures and uploads mapping data to the Hivemapper platform.
Helium Mobile announces coverage for over 200 countries 📱
Helium Mobile was one of the most prolific bear market builders and it’s paying off for their customers in a major way.
The DePIN project is a wireless phone service which has partnered with T-Mobile to use their tower network.
The base level Helium contract only costs $20 per month and provides unlimited talk and data.
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
Solana Validator Discussion
The Solana validator community discusses:
upcoming validator educational workshops
the new Agave client
SIMD 96 - Full Priority Fee To Validators
governance related to SIMD 33 - Timely Vote Credits.
Logan Jastremski Podcast
Dan Albert is the Executive Director of Solana Foundation. The Solana Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana ecosystem.
Lightspeed
Jon Charbonneau joins the show after Jito announced their suspension of their mempool function.
We deep dive into solving the MEV problem, Ethereum's Dencun upgrade, the current state of crypto in 2024 & of course.. meme coins.
Unlayered Podcast
Solana Legend returns to Unlayered to share his views on why Solana is winning and will continue to win.
We start off by picking up where we last left off with Legend, focusing on the shortcomings of Ethereum and the EVM ecosystem. We then dive into the current state of the markets and a litany of other topics including which narratives Legend is most excited about.