Mad News #35 ♾️ Everything Fits In Your Backpack
Mad News #35 ♾️ Everything Fits In Your Backpack
Devs ship a record amount of updates, mobile app is catching up to extension, #Chapter2 Leaderboard competition is heating up and the Backpack Wallet shined during JUP claim.
Welcome back to the Mad News! 🗞️
Backpack devs have not slept in weeks
Mobile app catching up to Extension
Wallet integrates automated Priority Fees
#Chapter2 Leaderboard competition is stiff
Backpack performance shines during Jupiter claim
Solana Scribes is the first hackathon for writers
…and much more!
See our alternate language Mad News channels in Vietnamese, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog, Arabic, Japanese (BRAND NEW!) and Portuguese (BRAND NEW!).
Read our latest feature interview with the founders of Claynosaurz:
Nicholas ‘Cab’ Cabana and Andrew Pelekis are childhood friends who reunited after twenty years. They are on a mission to reshape storytelling with the Claynosaurz, “cute, colorful, mostly clay dinosaurs looking for adventure”.
Their whimsical animated shorts rack up millions of views each week.
In an industry dominated by giants like Pixar and DreamWorks, Claynosaurz has emerged as a formidable player in the animation world.
Backpack Exchange developers have not slept in weeks 😴
This was a big week for both the Wallet and Exchange with numerous improvements, polishes and new features (including new token support).
The Drop
The Drop is the rewards distribution system on the Backpack Exchange.
The Drop is where we'll funnel much of energy for our community, our products, and our marketing efforts.
A place to do stuff on the exchange.
A place to do stuff on chain.
Winners of the MOBILE trading contest are the first to use The Drop and are able to claim their rewards now.
Referral Links
KYC’d users can now generate referral links and start racking up points, rewards are yet to be defined.
Create your Referral Link here!
Leaderboard (Volume)
The Leaderboard tracks trading volume on the Exchange and shows the top users volume in USDC.
Account Stats
Account Stats is pretty self explanatory, it is a dashboard that gives you a zoomed out view of your trading status on the Exchange.
Navigation Bar
Exploring the platform just got easier with dedicated navigation bar that lives at the bottom of your screen.
Trading Mode Toggle
Markets
Stats
Volume Leaderboard
External Links
Auto Lock
Auto Lock customization is one of the older implementations (was added a few releases ago) but is an extremely improved function none-the-less.
Set your Wallet to avoid Auto Locking for up to 999 minutes.
Mobile Backpack app starting to catch up to Extension 📱
Solana staking and NFT Locking are now live on iOS and Android.
Backpack Wallet code base being polished along with new functions added 🎒
Version 0.10.24 of the browser extension added Automated Priority Fees to Backpack Wallet transactions.
Users can modify their Compute Unit Price and Compute Unit Limit after placing Backpack in Developer Mode.
Increasing these limits can help ensure your transactions process during times of network congestion.
Follow founders for the real alpha 🔔
Blockchain and crypto brands are unique in comparison to traditional industries in many ways.
One that stands out in particular is the concept of building in public.
Keeping an eye on web3 founders social accounts is a good way to glean alpha that doesn’t always make it to the official channels.
Armani Ferrante is notable for his detailed expansion of new features and functions across the Backpack suite of products including now famous threads on:
#Chapter2 Leaderboard competition is tough 📊
Solana Mobile’s #Chapter2 Leaderboard is LIVE and thousands of contestants have registered referral links and began harvesting purchases for “the product”.
Backpack is sponsoring a special Mad Lads prize track.
To qualify for the Mad Lads prizes you must create your referral link with a Backpack wallet.
Users must also connect a Backpack Wallet during the purchase flow.
Learn more about “the product”, sponsors and how to win here.
JUP claim was an opportunity for Backpack Wallet to shine 🪐
The Jupiter (JUP) airdrop was one of the biggest single day events in the history of the Solana blockchain, network demand broke multiple RPC providers and wallets.
Backpack performed without a hitch.
The Backpack wallet was incredibly smooth through all this holy shit
Claimed using 10+ addresses and everything went great
Bonus points-> It's open source and widely supported throughout the Solana eco. Great job Armani Ferrante and team on the wallet and Mert for the RPC
-StrategicHashBuster
Backpack priority fees worked perfectly, able to claim $JUP with no issues
The price of JUP even showed up in my wallet instantly
LAD OF THE WEEK: Roberto Barreto ❤️
Our LAD OF THE WEEK, Roberto Barreto, is the definition of loyal to the soil.
The Lads community is chock full of passionate holders who fly the Mad flag proudly and Roberto has been active in the community since before Mad Lads even had a name.
The Venezuelan is an administrator who works in technology and sees crypto as an alternative path.
I have had the honor of working with Roberto on the Spanish Mad News translations for the last several months and am consistently impressed.
“It is a pleasure to contribute my grain of sand so that the message reaches every corner”
Contributors like Roberto have helped make the Mad Lads and Backpack experience something special, something that is impossible to replicate anywhere else.
If you haven’t already, give Roberto a follow!
Buster Lad drops in on the London BuildStop 🤝
BuildStop London is a weekly event where members of Superteam UK meet up at a coworking space every Friday.
These legends work together, host impromptu workshops and discuss the greater Superteam UK mission.
ENTER THE ARENA is Solana’s newest worldwide hackathon 🖥️
Last week we covered the emergence of Colosseum, Solana’s brand new division which manages hackathons and works directly with founders to invest in startups.
They announced their first-ever hackathon called “ENTER THE ARENA”.
There is not much information available about the tracks, prizes or special bounties but you can get a head start on the competition.
In the meantime, create a Colosseum profile, search for cofounders & share product ideas in the forum.
Solana’s first hackathon for writers ✍️
Solana Scribes is a written content hackathon that boasts over $120,000 in prizes for winners.
LamportDAO and Superteam Earn are the driving force behind the hackathon and has secured funding from dozens of Solana’s most notable brands.
TL;DR — write things (research, reports, docs, poems, memes), make a lasting impact on the ecosystem, and get paid for it!!
Some of the tracks include:
- Core Research
- Tokenomics
- State of the Solana ecosystem Report
- NFTs on Solana
- DeFi on Solana
- Development on Solana
- Best fictional story
- Best poem
- Best meme
- Best ecosystem getting started guide
- Best thought-provoking essay
Create your profile and get started today!
Superteam Philippines hosts IRL launch party 🎉
Superteam Philippines is the newest regional community to spring forth.
They hosted an IRL launch event where dozens attended (and hundreds more online) a day full of celebrations and discussions about emboldening the Solana community.
Set your calendar reminder for the Solana Ecosystem Call 📅
Join the rest of the Solana ecosystem for the monthly meeting that draws hundreds of developers.
This time, its happening at U.S. & Europe friendly hours!
Mark your calendars for Feb. 8th at 10 AM PST/18:00 UTC.
Jon Wong is hosting an IRL viewing of the call at the Solana Foundation office in NYC, send him a DM for more info!
It all started with Anchor ⚓
Anchor is a framework for Solana developers to create smart contracts, it’s also how Armani Ferrante staked his claim in early blockchain history.
This framework has played an important role in the rapid scaling of apps on Solana.
Ichigo, developer at Helius, created a masterclass in utilizing Anchor to it’s fullest capabilities from Hello World to Privilege Escalation.
Token Extensions are all the rage, and now they help pay the bills too ✈️
The Solana Foundation has an open call for grants to build solutions that implement new use cases with token extensions on the Solana blockchain.
It appears that Austin Federa is helping spearhead the effort, he says that grant applications should:
Benefit future builders
Be open source (but can plug into proprietary systems)
Be attainable by the end of H1, 2024
Priority will be given to tooling and infrastructure applications, over project-specific use cases
Solana network supports two new regulated stablecoins 🪙
GMO-Z launched the first regulated Japanese yen stablecoin called “GYEN” using the Solana network.
They also used the network to launch a USD stablecoin called “ZUSD”.
Leveraging Solana’s advanced blockchain technology, Solana GYEN and Solana ZUSD are transacted in a lightning-fast execution process while ensuring unparalleled stability and reliability, fulfilling a streamlined fiat-to-crypto gateway experience and bridging the Japanese yen and U.S. dollars with the digital asset field.
Token Extension technology made these new stablecoins possible via transfer hooks and permanent delegate functions.
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
Validated Podcast
In this episode, Austin chats with Alex Rawitz, co-founder of DIMO, a DePIN project built on Polygon which allows users to collect and monetize their car's data.
Instead of pitting one blockchain against another, Austin and Alex have an optimistic, open-minded discussion about the DePIN space in general.
Solana Changelog
Jacob Creech and Nick Frostbutter deliver their weekly update for Solana Developers.
Lightspeed Podcast
Anatoly Yakovenko joins us for the most information-packed episode on Solana we've ever listened to. It's a masterclass exploration of Solana's architecture and roadmap.
We discuss the Saga Chapter 2, fee market optimizations, Jito and MEV, validator profitability, Solana's end game, Firedancer and client diversity, token extensions and more!
In this episode, we cover Solana's scheduler challenge, blockspace market dynamics, how Jito impacts transaction efficiency, Firedancer's goal and impact on client diversity, governance, validator profitability, applications for Jito's Stakenet and more!