Mad News #39 π« Seriously, Backpack Is Hiring Developers
Backpack secures $120M evaluation, Exchange receives fresh batch of upgrades, RENDER token support added, anonymizing blockchain footprint with Backpack tools and Solana's $250,000 hackathon prize.
Welcome to the Mad News! ποΈ
Backpack secures $120M evaluation in fundraising round
Mad Lads celebrates 10-month mint anniversary
Exchange receives fresh batch of upgrades
Perfecting the token release process on Backpack Exchange
Mobile Exchange app leaks on Twitter
Eye opening interview with DRiPβs founder
β¦and much more!
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Backpack secures $120M evaluation in Series A fundraising round π¦
Another day, another announcement from Backpack that sets the Solana ecosystem on fire.
The Backpack ecosystem of companies, creators of the Backpack wallet, the Mad Lads NFT collection, and Backpack Exchange, today announced the first joint closing of their $17 million strategic Series A round at a $120 million combined valuation.
-Backpack Raises $17 Million Strategic Series A Round Led by Placeholder VC
Once again, Backpack finds themselves entrenched in the crypto news cycle.
CoinDesk - Solana Veterans Raise $17M for 'Backpack' Crypto Wallet, Exchange
Decrypt - With Mad Lads on Top, Solana Exchange Backpack Sets Its Sights on Coinbase
Cointelegraph - Mad Ladsβ Backpack Exchange closes $17 million Series A led by Placeholder VC
Incrypted - Backpack ΠΏΡΠΈΠ²Π»Π΅ΠΊΠ»Π° $17 ΠΌΠ»Π½ ΠΏΠΎ ΠΈΡΠΎΠ³Π°ΠΌ ΡΠ°ΡΠ½Π΄Π° ΡΠ΅ΡΠΈΠΈ Π
Exchanges are integral to cryptoβs growth because they are the first point of contact for new entrants. Delivering a stress-free, secure & exciting experience is Backpack's unique value prop.
Backpack not only delivers in core functionality (execution, compliance, audibility) but goes above & beyond to capture the users' imagination of what is possible with crypto via Mad Lads and the ecosystem they're building.
What do you really know about DRiP? π§
Vibhu Norby, founder of DRiP, sat down with me to talk origin stories, motivations for building and strategy for the platformβs future.
How many years away are we from seeing the average person using crypto?
Vibhu: If we do our job then weβre not more than three to five years away.
If DRiP doesnβt succeed then it might be ten.
Mad Lads Snapshot: 10 Months Post Mint πΈ
It has been just over ten months since the Mad Lads minted, letβs get up to speed on how the collection is performing by the numbers.
Holders: 5.08K unique wallets
Total Volume: 2.71M SOL
Highest Sale: 3675 SOL (Skull trait)
Highest Floor Price: 227 SOL
Mad Validator stake: 657,695 SOL
Airdrops: [TOO MANY TO COUNT]
Take a step back in time and relive the Mad Lads mint from April 20, 2023.
Backpack Exchange pumping out updates π₯οΈ
Pre Season trading launched a few weeks ago along with rudimentary Leaderboards to track trading volume and referrals., devs did something and updated the tracking mechanisms as well as introducing a new function.
Pre Season Stats
View your trading data and Referrals for the Pre Season event in the bottom action bar.
Referrals
View your Referrals trading activity in the Settings dashboard.
Account Fee Tier
View the status of your accountβs Fee Tier in the Settings dashboard.
Perfecting the token addition process with RENDER πͺ
The Backpack Exchange now supports ten trading pairs with the addition of RENDER.
A large part of developing the Backpack Exchange platform involves the smooth addition of networks like Render.
Each iteration of releasing a new trading pair improves the process.
Is Aurory teeing up to be the next platform to place Backpack on top? β¬οΈ
We have previously noted the growing trend of Solana platforms adopting Backpack as their recommended wallet of choice.
Aurory posted a Backpack infused teaser which indicates to this blogger that they will be the next brand to align with the Wallet.
The Aurory and Backpack stories are intertwined with a core common connection.
Yann Penno is both the lead designer of Aurory as well as the artist who dreamed up the Mad Lads collection.
Exchange coming to mobile app soon π±
Armani Ferrante has previously mentioned that taking the Exchange mobile is a vital next step for Backpack.
This week he said βBackpack Exchange coming to mobile, soon.β
snaest must know something that the rest of us donβt as he posted the first look at a mobile Exchange.
Protect your private parts by following Armaniβs advice π
Recent feature releases from Phantom prompted outcry from the more security conscious crypto users this week.
Armani responded with a pointed reminder that the Backpack is a powerful tool that helps anonymize your blockchain experience.
Reminder that if you don't want people tracking your wallets, you can restore your privacy by depositing into Backpack Exchange and immediately withdrawing to a new wallet address.
Bridging tokens with Wormhole takes less than 30 seconds π
Long time Lad token took it upon himself to make a Wormhole bridge tutorial using the Backpack Wallet.
Importantly, the video shows that you must create an Ethereum wallet in Backpack before the Wormhole bridge options appear.
LASSIE OF THE WEEK: Alexandra Berliner π
Alexandra is our LASSIE OF THE WEEK!
Filmmaker, musician and designer Alexandra Berliner can be found at crypto events across Europe repping the Mad Lads.
The Brussels native has ingratiated herself into Mad Lads culture by participating in just about every single content contest that has been held (and winning a free Breakpoint ticket).
Alexandra hit the streets of France this week for NFT PARIS and quickly found another Mad Lassie flaunting the Fock It. aesthetic.
If you havenβt followed Alexandra already, do it now!
Attis present another another episode of the Roster Reels πΉ
Roster activity may escape the casual Mad Lads fan but that is no mistake, a majority of their content lives on platforms that degens donβt frequent.
If you fall into this category, Attis has you covered: enter a new mastercut of professional snowboarder Lyon Farrell.
Solanaβs hackathon machine Colosseum announces first event ποΈ
Colosseumβs Renaissance hackathon begins on March 4th and is focused on engineering and business tracks.
The Grand Prize winner will be entered into Colossuemβs accelerator and receive $250K in pre-seed capital.
Competing in Solana hackathons has accelerated the direction of my life.
Grizzlython, especially the Grizzly Cubs program, showed me a deep love for startups I thought I would never have.
Highly recommend getting uncomfortable and optimizing your learning, you'd be surprised.
Builders can win track prizes across:
The Grand Prize presented by Symmetry
Consumer Apps by Solana Mobile
DeFi+Payments by Orca
DePIN by io.net
Infrastructure by Pyth
Gaming by Phantom
DAOs & Communities by Squads
Coca Cola x Solana? π₯€
Cryptocurrency and blockchain culture is slowly but surely ingratiating itβs way into the corporate business world.
Solana has captured another one of the most recognized brands in the world with their faster than light transactions and low cost.
Coca-Cola HBC has adopted a secure blockchain system for issuing and verifying employee qualifications obtained through its Coca-Cola Digital Academy training program.
The move allows participants to receive and share verifiable digital certificates as NFTs on the Solana blockchain.
The ALL.ART protocol provides the infrastructure needed to deploy this range of solutions.
Sol-Incinerator is here to save the day π₯
Sol-Incinerator is the most revered NFT and token burn tool that exists on the Solana blockchain.
The tool is used by tens of thousands of Solana users who are looking to rid themselves of spam tokens (and earn a small reward in the process).
Their next tool βwill save Solana by killing wallet draining forever.β
Lighthouse Protocol is a smart contract that will automatically fail a transaction if the simulation does not match the objective outcome.
Wallet draining is a lucrative industry. Across 2023 alone, the impact of drains is estimated to be nearly $300 million dollars stolen from 320,000 victims.
It would not be an overstatement to say that this is one of the largest impediments to mass adoption for Solana. The dynamic it creates makes web3 inhospitable to anyone other than the truly battle-hardened.
We will be covering this story closely.
Onboarding the next generation of blockchain developers with Solana University π
Solana University set itβs eyes on Columbia in an effort to onboard a new generation of developers to the blockchain.
Dozens of young builders and Solana supporters met for a weekend-long hackathon.
Notably, nearly 70% of projects were led by students, highlighting the importance of supporting young talent in our ecosystem.
Token Extensions are all the rage in web3 π§±
Token Extensions (formerly known as Token-2022) have swept through the Solana ecosystem and opened up a new world of possibilities for developers.
Along with this has come a tidal wave of tutorials, workshops and panels about the new technology.
Superteam dropped a technical TL;DR that tackles exactly what is possible using the new tooling.
Austin Federa gave the Blockworks team a succinct breakdown of Token Extensions and what they represent for the Solana ecosystem.
Folks at Solana Labs and Foundation are very open to adding new Token Extensions if there is a need or demand from the community, but most of that feedback so far is from large institutions and financial companies.
There hasnβt been much feedback from degens, and Iβm sure they have lots of cool ideas for new Token Extensions that we would like to see.
I think we could, maybe in a year or two, move to a world where people are able to publish their own Token Extensions and anyone can go and submit a pull request.
-Token extensions on Solana: Q&A with Solanaβs head of strategy Austin Federa
PODCAST CORNER ποΈ
Chewing Glass
In this episode, Chase chats with Siong from Jupiter about his history as a developer, Jupiter's meteoric rise, and the protocol's airdrop from earlier this year.
Validated
In this episode, Austin talks with Nicolas and Conor from Cordial Systems, an enterprise custody solution initially developed for Jump Crypto.
They discuss how to build a self-custody solution that serves crypto-native businesses without compromising the security standards of traditional systems. Nicolas and Conor explain the limitations of current enterprise custody solutions and how Cordial Systems addresses these issues.
The Superteam UK Podcast
Welcome to our exclusive interview with Matty Tay, the co-founder of Colosseum, the global Solana hackathon.
Discover everything you need to know about participating in the Colosseum and learn how to submit a winning entry.
Lightspeed Podcast
This week Mert & Dan discuss Colosseum's hackathon, why Solana needs to double down on building more applications, defining active users within crypto, the roadmap for Ethereum, the rollup thesis & more!