Mad News #45 | Mad Lads Anniversary π€ BTC Halving
Celebrating the one year anniversary of the Mad Lads mint, Exchange goes live on Android, Referral rebate claims released weekly, aligning with Parcl, interviews with Backpack founders and much more!
Welcome to the Mad News!
Refer and Earn 30% on the Backpack Exchange π₯
Blockchains are the last great land grab β°οΈ
Mobile trading will make billion dollar days commonplace π±
Thousands of Lads holders reserved their allocation for the Sharky airdrop π¦
Tristan lays Pipeline podcast alpha π§
Armaniβs Sunday Streams so good π₯
Lads on top of the stage at University of Tokyo πΎ
β¦and much more!
Share this article on π/Twitter before the BTC halving.
Mad Lads one year mint anniversary is right around the corner π
Mad Lads exploded onto the Solana blockchain over the course of three tumultuous days in April, 2023.
Today they reign supreme as one of the biggest rugs in NFT history.
Refer and Earn 30% on the Backpack Exchange π₯
Refer and Earn rebates are claimable each Friday within the Questlog menu of the Backpack Exchange.
How To Claim Rebates
Open the Diamond (π) menu option in bottom right hand corner.
Select The Drop menu option at bottom of popup window.
Choose "Claim The Drop"
Click on the cryptocurrency that your Rebates were paid out in.
Note: You have to repeat Step #4 for each token.
Read more about Referral rebate claims and FAQs here.
Blockchains are the last great land grab β°οΈ
An imminent Parcl partnership is on the horizon as the Backpack marketing squad deploys their tried and true emoji teaser strategy.
Parcl is a decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual futures contracts for synthetic real estate assets.
These contracts track the price movements of real-world real estate indexes, but without the need for physical ownership of the underlying properties.
What will that partnership look like?
Time will tell but we have already received one glimpse, Parcl devs implemented the Backpack Wallet side panel into their trading platform.
Tristan Yver and Can Sun, founding members of the Backpack exchange, joined the Parcl team for an AMA this morning.
Listen to the full interview here.
Mobile trading will make billion dollar days commonplace π±
The release of mobile Exchange trading opens the doors for millions of users who do not have access to a desktop computer.
It represents the next giant leap forward in Backpackβs aggressive mission to catch up and out perform the established CEX trade.
An important component of that mission centers on capturing the APAC (Asia-Pacific) markets like China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and dozens of other jurisdictions.
China comprises one of cryptoβs biggest user groups and the community has been watching Backpackβs story carefully.
Mobile will take us from 300M to 1B.
-Armani Ferrante, Feb 14
The quote above refers to the volume that is traded in a 24hr period on the Exchange, since then there have been numerous billion dollar days (6B is the highest so far!)
Thousands of Lads holders reserved their allocation for the Sharky airdrop π¦
The Mad Lads reservation period has ended for SharkyFiβs upcoming SHARX token distribution.
Popularity comes with a heavy price π
Backpack experienced itβs first major flood of user complaints in the platforms history.
The criticism stems from two main complaints:
an extremely large amount of participants diluted the token distribution pool
a small subset of users did not fully complete their Wallet connection process
Complaints were loud and heavy both in the Support channels as well as comment sections of Twitter (even birthing a diss track).
Feedback has been clear that users want the Wallet connection process to be more transparent.
Backpack is famous for pivoting and responding to user concerns so you can expect a much more streamlined experience next time around.
Tristan lays Pipeline podcast alpha π§
Tristan Yver is back on his podcast game with The Pipeline, Monadβs news and content division.
Danny Pipelines and intern interviewed Backpackβs founder about:
xNFTs and Backpack products
Mad Lads history
NadLads lore
Armaniβs Sunday Streams so good π₯
Jazz music drifted through the air as Armani Ferrante started Sunday off with a surprise Twitch stream for the first time in months.
The streams are impromptu events where the most intense fans of Mad Lads and Backpack get to ask 1:1 questions about the development, the broader industry and TikTok stars.
Both Armani and Tristan are public facing founders who routinely attend Spaces, sit for interviews and record podcasts.
The odds of you seeing Mad Lads swag at a Solana event is very high π
Solana communities are renowned in the blockchain ecosystem for the self-organized meetups that take place around the globe on a weekly basis.
Mad Lads is often the dominant theme of events as the βfock itβ mentality spills over into all parts of the industry.
Lads on top of the stage at University of Tokyo πΎ
Camao represented both Solana and the Mad Lads during his session as a guest speaker at a University of Tokyo panel which more than 7k people attended.
LAD OF THE WEEK: UQ βοΈ
Sunday Streams were an important part of early Mad Lads history and the birthplace of one of the most active holders in the entire Lads universe: UQ
He is a reply guy, meme maker and all around proponent of the βfock itβ mentality - the ideal community member.
UQ was an ardent supporter of Backpack before the Mad Lads were ever announced.
He was not a holder after the mint but parlayed his continued support into a LIVE giveaway during a Sunday Stream with Armani.
Watch it in the inaugural issue of the Mad News!
Rather than tuck tail and floor the NFT for a short term gain he has diamond hodled his Lad and became an integral part of the Mad Lads family.
If you havenβt already, give UQ a follow on Twitter!
1000+ participants submitted projects for the Solana Scribes hackathon βοΈ
Solana Scribes was the first written content focused hackathon in Solanaβs history.
Topics ranged from deep dives into Solana infrastructure, poems, short stories, validator economics and much more.
π₯βοΈ1000+ participants.
π₯βοΈ2700+ submissions.
π₯βοΈCountless hours.
Lamport DAO, organizer of the event, released a 147 Tweet long mega thread that highlights all the winners.
BONK partners with IRL French football team π
Bonk is one of the few Solana brands which has broken out of the Solana blockchain and became mainstream outside of SVM token circles.
BONK is excited to announce a formal partnership with the Paris Musketeers, the first fully professional American Football team to play in France!
This will put BONK in homes all over Europe while offering a great opportunity to help the international growth of the most popular sport in America.π
BONK and the Paris Musketeers are ready to onboard sports lovers using the power of Solana blockchain technology!
They take that to a whole nothaβ level with the announcement of their partnership with an American football team that is based out of Paris, France.
The home of the Musketeers is Stade Jean-Bouin, which is the benchmark in the American Football stadium landscape in Europe and sets the standard for other venues of its kind across the continent. The 20,000-seat state-of-the-art facility located in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris directly next to Parc de Princes (PSG) and Roland Garros (French Open Tennis).
Cryptocurrency has become popular in the EU country and it boasts one of the largest growing groups of blockchain developers.
Alyra, a French native crypto brand, is offering an 8-week long training course that dives into Solana development, Rust and the Solana Virtual Machine.
Learn more and register today.
Solana Ecosystem Hong Kong Night draws huge crowd in China π¨π³
Hundreds gathered in Hong Kong to celebrate the Solana ecosystem and learn about how blockchain technology is changing the future for China.
There are several familiar faces in this video, can you spot them?
At the event, the Chairman of the Solana Foundation Lily Liu shared their story with the Chinese-speaking market, and partners of the foundation and leading projects in the ecosystem shared their insights on DePIN and the latest innovations in the ecosystem.
Renaissance Hackathon comes to an end and Heavy Duty Builders seized the opportunity π·
Heavy Duty Builders is a regional Solana developer community that is based out of Spain.
They were one of the most prolific contributors to Colosseumβs Renaissance Hackathon and submitted a dozen projects to the competition.
The projects include:
The group has aligned with Backpack several times in the past and even contributed to the launch of the Spanish language support channels.
PODCAST CORNER ποΈ
Validated Podcast
Sreeram argues that restaking is merely a way of making proof-of-stake networks more programmable, addressing the economic and architectural considerations required to make the restaking thesis work. The conversation also elucidates the relationship between EigenLayer and the Ethereum L1, particularly in the context of settlement and data availability, and how restaking may also one day be applied to blockchains outside the Ethereum ecosystem.
Future Podcast
The first guest of the Future Podcast is none other than the co-founder of Solana himself. We go deep, and we get personal:
- Childhood and Early Lessons
- Educational and Career Path
- Family and Personal Growth
- Professional Challenges and Discoveries
- Solana and Blockchain Technology
- Personal Interests and Hobbies
Anatoly's story is a blend of personal growth, professional evolution, and the constant search for new challenges and experiences, underscored by a strong commitment to family and community.
The Index
This week on The Index, host Alex Kehaya dives into the world of cryptocurrency with Akshay Bidi, advisor to the Solana Foundation and founder of Superteam. Akshay's journey, from launching Uber in India to becoming a key player in crypto. Alex and Akshay discuss the potential of crypto to revolutionize wealth creation.
Lightspeed Podcast
Gm! This week we discuss the state of the network, MarginFi drama, Uniswap vs the SEC, airdrops, Monad's $225 million raise & more. Enjoy!