Mad News #26 📰 Mad Lads Are Soulbound
Backpack doubles down on expanded language support, first look at soulbound badges, 1/1 Pythia NFT winner selected, subaccounts launch on Exchange and Skullture developing at a blazing pace.
Welcome back to the Mad News! 🗞️
Backpack doubles down on expanded language support
Mad Lads holders receive their first soulbound badges
Pythia “Oracle” 1/1 NFT winner selected
Subaccounts launch on the Backpack Exchange
Skullture developing at blazing pace
Solana’s next month long hacker house
…and much more!
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Follow the new Backpack中文 Twitter/𝕏 and connect on the Chinese Telegram and Spanish Telegram channels.
Backpack also launched a new Support Line account on Twitter/𝕏.
Read more Mad News in our expanded language channels:
Hindi [COMING SOON]
Pyth event participants receive first soulbound badge
Mad Lads who participated in the Pyth Network event on the Backpack Exchange received a soulbound badge to commemorate the occasion.
Just like the coins earned from staking Mad Lads NFTs, the badges are stored in an inventory system and cannot be traded or transferred.
Staking for coins in the Mad Lads xNFT went live the week of June 5th.
Many of us played MMORPGs like WoW & OSRS growing up
The easiest way to explain this is that your Mad Lads have a soulbound inventory system of xNFTs controlled by the owner of the NFT
If you own the Mad Lad NFT, you also own its inventory of items
Learn from Armani Ferrante how soulbound assets work.
1/1 Pythia NFT winner selection buzzed with energy
Armani Ferrante fired up Twitch and amassed 500+ live viewers who watched the unveiling of the 1/1 Pythia NFT winner.
The jazz backed stream lasted for about thirty minutes and Armani opened with an overview of the Backpack Exchange beta launch stats.
Chat was in a frenzy the entire time and this instantly became a new core memory for the culture.
All holders who participated received another badge in their Mad Lads xNFT inventory.
Backpack Exchange opens up Subaccounts support
Exchange wallet management just got a lot easier with the launch of subaccounts.
KYC’d users of the Backpack Exchange can create subaccounts that allow you organize assets and privatize your trading experience.
Subaccounts are a great way to make your wallets a bit more private. Each subaccount has a different address and can be used to pool your assets from wallets you don't want visibly connected on the blockchain.
Backpack中文 emerges as the newest home for your crypto
The official Backpack中文 Twitter/𝕏 account launched in November and has provided a fresh look at what Backpack is working to accomplish.
This is the first of many efforts to introduce Backpack and Mad Lads culture to all corners of the world.
Lyon Farrell paid China a visit this week on his mission to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Made it to China!! Any Mad Lads in Beijing!?
A41 makes the Mad News headlines for second week in a row
Speaking of all corners of the world, A41 is back with a testimonial describing their introduction to Solana, the Mad Lads and other web3 natives.
Their team has curated an impressive collection of Mad PFPS.
Make sure to give them all a follow!
SolanaFM opens up their new blockchain explorer “Quantum” to Mad Lads early
SolanaFM has been giving Early Access spots for users to try new Quantum features over the last several weeks.
Mad Lads holders were the latest to be granted exclusive entry.
Quantum is a part of our mission to make SolanaFM the most readable explorer on Solana.
We spent the last few months refining the explorer infrastructure, building the tools to efficiently translate Solana data and putting everything together in a new-and-improved interface.
Do it for the Skullture
Skulls have continued their reign as the leading subtrait in the Mad Lads collection.
4/5 of the top sales in the collections history have occurred in the few weeks (and they’re all Skulls).
The Mad Skulls account posted this image last week with the ominous caption “To move forward, sometimes you need to burn the past”
We might not know what they’re planning but the newest Mad Skull holder Kadense will have soon have an idea.
Holding a Skull trait Mad Lad grants you entry to an exclusive group chat with Solana royalty.
Mad Skulls are holding their second fireside chat with special guest Anatoly Yakovenko (founder of Solana).
LAD OF THE WEEK: MAD PASTA LAD
This week’s LAD OF THE WEEK is none other than MAD PASTA LAD, the unofficial hype man of the Mad Lads culture.
every time Armani or Tristan tweet some shit like “dream big” or “we will be the biggest exchange in the world”
my balls tingle, anyone else get that feeling ?
MAD PASTA LAD is the troll that every community needs, the epitome of the Fock It. mentality.
There is a magic in meme making, an art to shit posting, that PASTA has perfected.
Give MAD PASTA LAD a follow!
Mad First Ladies form The FOCKETTES
Amy Street, well known Solana degen and Mad News interview alumni, is spearheading an initiative to connect the female holders of Mad Lads.
There are almost thirty members so far, if you want to join and connect reach out here for the invite.
Has there been a breakout usecase of Mad Lads IP?
Intellectual property usage for commercially creative ideas is a common topic of discussion but we have rarely seen it executed at a significant level.
The trait
The anime style
Every part of the Mad Lads IP all scream STORYTELLING
Roach Writes reminds us in this animated mastercut that we have yet to experience the true depth and possibility of Mad Lads community created works.
Mad Lads brand hits Apple Store for the first time
Although it wasn’t an *official* deal, Luis helped broker the Mad Lads first appearance in an Apple Store this week.
It is not hard to imagine the Mad Lads being the first project to bridge the gap between Apple and the blockchain.
Armani Ferrante runs the founders circuit again
Backpack Exchange buzz has placed an entirely new level of attention on Backpack, Mad Lads and the future of Solana.
Bitrue is a decentralized exchange that launched in 2018. Since then they have integrated trading support for more than 700 cryptocurrencies.
Armani joined a panel of founders to talk about the finer details of building crypto exchanges in the regulated world.
He also joined a private event for The Barrows to talk directly to holders of the project.
Y-Axis Pod is back with with Episode #7
Tristan Yver released a fresh Y-Axis Pod episode featuring Mike Cahill, the CEO of Douro Labs (development arm behind the Pyth Network).
In this episode, we engage in an in-depth exploration of the Pyth Network with Mike, focusing on Douro Labs' endeavors to enhance blockchain oracle services.
Mike brings a wealth of practical knowledge about market structures, which plays a pivotal role in guiding this project.
mtndao Hacker House returns in February 2024
mtndao is a group of blockchain builders that live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
mtndao is teaming up with the Solana Foundation to make v5 the biggest mtndao yet
v5 will run all of February 2024 in downtown Salt Lake City
Join the Telegram group to RSVP.
Last July they hosted the OPOS Hackathon, another monthlong event sponsored by Solana powerhouses like Helius, Phantom, Balaji, Helium, cypher, marginfi and the Lamport DAO.
Superteam UAE’s Founders Trek wraps up in Dubai
The Founders Trek was a multiday in person event that invited dozens of Solana founders to strategize the ins and outs of launching crypto businesses in the Middle East.
Superteam UAE has hosted multiple events since launching earlier this year and is planning more for 2024.
Their Twitter/𝕏 account was recently suspended but you can keep an eye on the SuperteamDAO account.
Boba Guys roll out Solana-built loyalty program
Boba Guys launched in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco and since expanded locations to Los Angeles and NYC.
Recently they leveraged cNFTs on Solana to manage their Passport loyalty program.
Helius dishes up dissertation on Firedancer
Helius Engineering Blog houses a cornucopia of Solana documentation and their newest flagship article is the deepest dive into Firedancer yet.
The Firedancer article is a dense resource that explains the problems that Firedancer solves, who is building the solution, the methodology of design, how it works and what impact it has on the future.
PODCAST CORNER!
Validated
Tommy Johnson from Armada joins Austin to talk about their mission of building an open-source toolkit for launching tokens from inception to full decentralization.
He and Austin reflect on the historical pain points of token launches, the evolution of tokenomics over the last several years, "governance-light" vs. "governance-heavy" DAO models, and more.
Chewing Glass
Chase Barker interviews Solana Labs software engineer Jon Cinque about his experience building on the blockchain and what Token-2022 is doing for the ecosystem.
In this episode, Chase chats with Jon Cinque, one of the core devs at Solana Labs.
Lightspeed
Garret Harper and Mert Mumtaz continue their podcast blitz of releasing multiple episodes per week.
First they sit down with Ariel Seidman, CEO of Hivemapper.
In this episode, we discuss Hivemapper's origin story, how Hivemapper maps the world, Hivemapper's killer feature, what DePIN projects get wrong, founder lessons and more!
Next up is Ted Livingston, the founder and CEO of Code, a not for profit whose mission is to make crypto simple to use.
Ted Livingston joins us to discuss crypto's micropayments opportunity and Code's big announcement! Ted is a product legend who built the fastest-growing messenger app (Kik) and is now building the best payments experience in crypto.