Mad News #36 🛑 Backpack Causes Worldwide Spam Shortage
1/1 NFT giveaway in collaboration with Tensor, Exchange tops Coinbase in BONK volume, Wallet implements cNFT spam control and Armani appears on one of Japan's biggest crypto channels.
Welcome back to the Mad News! 🗞️
1/1 Mad Lads x Tensorian NFT raffle
Exchange logs higher BONK volume than Coinbase
Wallet implements first spam NFT controls
Spanish speaking Solana developers growing rapidly
Armani gets interview by one of Japan’s biggest crypto channels
Solana Mobile secures 90k+ preorders
…and much more!
See our expanded language Mad News channels in Vietnamese, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog, Arabic, Japanese (BRAND NEW!) and Portuguese (BRAND NEW!).
The Infographic Series: Week 0 📊
The Mad News is now on a mission to create infographics that can help educate new users on the Backpack and Mad Lads mission.
We are kicking off a six-week series that tackles the most important topics surrounding the Exchange, Wallet, Community and more.
Suddenly, a wild 1/1 appears! 🎟️
Mad Lads and Tensor released the details on their latest collaboration, a pair of 1/1 “glitched” NFTs.
The teams are raffling the NFTs on the Backpack Exchange and two winners will be selected on February 12th.
This is the second Backpack Exchange event that non-KYC’d users can participate in (with the first being the 1/1 Pythia raffle for Mad Lads holders.)
Gold coins earned through Mad Lads loyalty staking play a major role in the raffle and have emerged as another rewards mechanism for holders.
How to earn tickets:
1 Mad Lad = 10 tickets
1 Tensorian = 10 tickets
1 Mad Lad Gold = 1 ticket
⚛️⚡️ x Tensor points = 1 ticket
🎒 x Backpack Exchange volume = 1 ticket
Tensor points and Backpack Exchange volume generated from Jan 19 until the end of the raffle will be counted.
Mad Lads inventory bulging with soulbound badges 🪙
Loyalty coins aren’t the only thing stacking up in the Mad Lads xNFT inventory.
Holders who joined the Wormhole Discord awoke to an early morning surprise in the form of a new soulbound badge.
The W message mirrors a long awaited announcement from the Wormhole team about the tokenomics of their upcoming distribution.
Ticker: W
Maximum Supply: 10,000,000,000
Initial circulating supply: 1,800,000,000
Token Format: Native ERC20 and SPL (using Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer standard)
Lock Up: 82% of W are initially locked and such tokens will unlock over the course of four years per the Token Release Schedule below.
Read: Armani Ferrante’s thread on “Soul Abstraction” and soulbound badges.
BONK trading contests places Backpack on top of CEX charts 🧱
Backpack’s Bonk trading contest was a massive success which ended with the distribution of more than 4B BONK to thousands of participants.
The top 10 traders each received 210M BONK and the top 70% of remaining traders split the other 2B BONK evenly.
The BONK that was distributed to the top 70% of trades more than covered the trading costs during the contest.
This contest helped propel Backpack to the top of the list for overall Bonk trading in the CEX and DEX world.
Yesterday Backpack Exchange had more bonk_inu volume than every exchange other than Binance. Today, every exchange other than Binance and Coinbase.
It's a small W. But it's a W.
Brick by brick. 🧱
The only spam we like comes in a can 🛑
Armani teased Backpack’s first NFT spam blocker last week and Extension users were greeted with the tool a few days ago.
The update is intended to ebb the never ending flow of cNFTs that are aimed at holders of blue chip NFT collections like the Mad Lads, Monkes and Tensorians.
This filter is a work in progress and will increase in functionality over time, especially in regards to automatically hiding NFTs that are not actually spam.
Heavy Duty Camp churns out new Spanish-speaking Solana developers 🛠️
The future got a little more spicy when Heavy Duty Builders announced that they were adopting Backpack as the *official* wallet of their #HeavyDutyCamp.
We're stoked to be the official wallet of #HeavyDutyCamp. Supporting Hispanic builders in their deep dive on Solana.
Backpack has placed a special focus on aligning with Spanish-speaking demographics such as the Spanish Mad News translations and dedicated language support channels.
This comes as no surprise as Backpack founder Tristan Yver is a native Peruvian and fluent Spanish speaker.
The Heavy Duty Camp is an online bootcamp hosted “en Español.”
Days are filled with online workshops, IRL building meetups and after hours shenanigans.
Tons of builders connected discussing & learning about Solana in Spanish. We're more than happy to start this adventure & it blows our mind to see our hermanos energy grow wild!
Backpack appears on FOMO Magazine cover at Superteam UAE Founders Villa 📝
FOMO Magazine is one of the few print-based blockchain publications which covers topics focused on NFTs and Solana.
Backpack (and by extension the Mad Lads) has made their cover for the second time!
You can pay for your subscription to FOMO with SOL and receive the print version mailed directly to your home (free shipping!).
Plans start as low as 0.2 SOL, sign up here.
Armani appears on one of the biggest crypto channels in Japan 🗾
Joe Takayama runs one of the biggest Japanese-language crypto channels which has gained hundreds of thousands of followers.
His interview with Armani began in Japanese and switched to English during the Q&A.
A large part of the conversation focused on the philosophy of Backpack and how the Mad Lads have taken on a culturally significant role in the development of the platform.
Armani also dropped alpha about what to expect next on the Backpack Exchange.
Attis drops new Roster-fueled hype supercut ⛽
The Roster content initiative is oft referred to as the “the Redbull of web3”.
Mad News doesn’t place a huge emphasis on Roster stories for one main reason:
The Roster content is first and foremost intended to capture the attention of eyeballs outside of the web3 space.
As part of the team's vision of breaking out of our bubble, they created a roster that features surfers, snowboarders and more 🏂
It seems that the content is inspiring community members to fly their Mad Flag proudly as well, we regularly see amateur extreme sports holders emulating The Roster.
LAD OF THE WEEK: Aloe 👁️👄👁️
𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕖 is our LAD OF THE WEEK!
𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕖 falls into that special category of holder that shows up for the brand through rain, sleet or snow.
This is particularly noteworthy when you consider that they joined the Backpack Discord server as soon as it was opened to the public via private invites (way back in May 2022).
We are approaching nearly two full years worth of 𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕖 visiting and engaging in the Mad Lads server every single day.
If you aren’t already following 𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕖, make sure to now!
Everstake releases masterclass blog on SOL staking in the Backpack Validator 🎒
Everstake is a massive validator operation that launched in 2018 and has grown to support 70+ blockchains with over 700k+ users.
They have recently began to expand their content section and the Backpack Wallet was their latest feature.
You can easily stake $SOL using Backpack
-In your wallet, choose Solana and then hit Stake
- Click on Add Stake and then specify the amount you wish to stake
- Choose the validator
- Hit Stake
Make sure to have at least 0.05 SOL to pay for transaction fees!
Read the full “HOW TO STAKE SOL WITH A BACKPACK WALLET” article here.
Solana Mobile reaches 90k+ preorders for their “product” 🥸
Solana Mobile’s #Chapter2 pre-order promotion has turned out to be a smash success which has garnered a large mindshare outside of the typical Solana ecosystem.
More than 92k “products” were pre-ordered before the first Leaderboard snapshot was taken.
The Leaderboard tracks referral link signups and the top 1500 were rewarded with a non-transferrable “Element NFT”.
It is not clear what the utility of the Element NFT is at this time but if it’s anything like the Solana Saga Genesis token, you’re going to want one.
GameShift API officially exits beta phase, makes it easy to build blockchain games 🎮
Solana Labs has been building out the GameShift platform since early 2023 and has finally declared their beta phase complete.
GameShift is an API used by game developers to quickly spin up web3 games and is specifically focused on servicing builders with minimal blockchain experience.
Game studios can now launch a branded in-game marketplace with royalty support, creating new revenue streams and offering players new avenues for progression.
GameShift handles complexity even for studios without Solana experience, so you can focus on creating amazing games.
Non-custodial wallets
Mint & transfer of game assets
Credit card payments
Dynamic NFTs
Asset lending
Marketplace w/ USDC support
Although GameShift was developed by teams at Solana Labs it has eyeballs on servicing all of the most popular blockchains and is supported by a multichain group of partners.
Read more about the GameShift platform here.
Hundreds of developers from across the world gather to celebrate Solana successes 🎮
The monthly Solana ecosystem call hosted by the SuperteamDAO was filled with wins and bullish updates from the most notable figures in the space.
Bryan Johnson on the intersection of blockchain technology and health longevity
meow on the recent Jupiter airdrops
Dan Romero on building the Farcaster platform and disrupting trad social media
The YouTube video version has not been uploaded yet but you can watch the entire livestream on Twitter.
Colosseum is looking for ENTER THE ARENA hackathon sponsors ⚔️
Colosseum recently launched as Solana’s brand new division which is dedicated to running hackathons and infusing the ecosystem with funding.
Their first event is titled “ENTER THE ARENA” and is purported to be one of the biggest and most well organized hackathon that Solana has ever seen.
The Solana Foundation's next online hackathon kicks off on March 4 and will finish on April 8.
The hackathon will be run by Colosseum, a new platform dedicated to growing the Solana ecosystem through hackathons and an accelerator program designed for winners. Learn more at colosseum.org.
Brands interesting sponsoring the hackathon can start by filling out this form.
Founders Bootcamp planned to Mandarin Cantonese speaking developers 💡
Mad News expanded language efforts are in no small part inspired by Solana’s mission of expanding blockchain development to all corners of the world.
You see this in initiatives like the Superteams, regional hacker houses, grant programs for IRL events and regular developer workshops that are hosted in non-English languages.
The Founder’s Bootcamp is focused on the Mandarin Cantonese speaking developer community.
20 founders are chosen for a two week workshop covering high level topics like Token Extensions, DePIN, project funding and scaling projects with Solana.
Registration is still open but closes soon.
mtndao v5 hackathon draws hundreds to Salt Lake City ⛰️
mtndao v5 has officially kicked off and more than 100 Solana enthusiasts have attended during the first week.
The video content coming out is top tier and places a spotlight on something that makes mtndao events different: they have just as many creators in attendance as they do developers.
Exploring the blockchain builders who are disrupting traditional industries 🔎
The Solana Case Studies are a wealth of knowledge and history surrounding the most interesting builders in the ecosystem.
These deep dives explore important issues surrounding not only the blockchain but also IRL industries.
XP, an independent blockchain ticketing platform, uses the Tamperproof protocol to offer a more transparent, efficient, and cost-effective way to buy and sell tickets.
Behind the scenes, XP's transactions use Solana's blockchain, denominated in USDC, to help buyers easily make the switch and rival the user experience (UX) of incumbent vendors — just without the junk fees.
-Case Study: XP’s Ticket Marketplace Could Upend the Entertainment Industry
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
仮想通貨チャンネル
クリプトの最前線で大注目の Backpack & MadLads CEO armaniferrante さんにインタビューさせていただきました！なぜ取引所ビジネス？今後のサプライズ、なぜ日本を拠点に？
Chewing Glass
In this episode, Chase chats with Carlos Noriega, whose project, Juicer, was a winner of the Solana Foundation's Hyperdrive Hackathon.
Lightspeed Podcast
Dan Romero joins us to discuss how Warpcast could become crypto's first mainstream app. Warpcast is a crypto-enabled social app built on top of the Farcaster protocol.
Warpcast offers a Twitter meets Reddit-like experience that leverages the composability, permissionless innovation and embedded finance of crypto.
The most hyped airdrop in Solana's history happened last week: the JUP (Jupiter) token launch.
We sit down to discuss what happened, how Solana performed, the controversy, what's next and why it's time for Solana to double down on product!
Logan Jastremski Podcast
Is AvaCloud the future of the Blockchain Industry? A Fireside chat with Nicholas Mussallem.