Mad News #56 👁️ Blinks Of An Eye
This week we cover Mad Lads recent run, Dialect changing crypto forever in the Blinks of an eye, putting a meme on that thang, checking in with The Roster and more Solana stories.
Welcome to the Mad News!
Mad Lads By The Numbers 🖩
Crypto changed forever in the Blinks of an eye 👁️
Everyone is invited to the $ZEX party 👀
You just gotta meme that thang 🎤
#ScotlandIsTheAlpha with BlockStart event 🦄
Kai Paula and Jokke Sommers have ice in their veins 🧊
Crypto founders are flocking to Japan 🗾
Blockasset shows real world impact with UFC 🥊
Mad Lads By The Numbers 🖩
The Mad Lads NFT collection launched on April 20th, 2024 and has went on to become one of the most active JPEG communities in Solana history.
Two of the biggest floor sweeps in recent history occurred in the last few days which propelled the Mad Lads floor price to near-record levels.
Holders: 6,022 unique wallets
Total Volume (Mad Lads): 3.1M SOL
Highest Sale: 3675 SOL (Skull trait)
Highest Floor Price: 196 SOL (December, 2023)
Mad Validator stake: 478,946 SOL
Token allocation and airdrop data is harder to quantify however it’s safe to say that Mad Lads holders made out like bandits during Solana’s recent token airdrop season.
Eligible Mad Lads will receive 16000 $W.
3200 liquid on $W TGE and the remaining amount will vest daily for a year.
Aligning with Mad Lads emerged as a go-to marketing move and instantly places both established and emerging brands in the crypto limelight.
The Wormhole airdrop for Mad Lads holders is a genius move, and an innovation that we haven't seen before.
It's a new mechanic to target and reward holders. You can send a badge to holders for buying your assets, participating in your community, or anything else, and reward them.
It drives the biggest Solana NFT project into your ecosystem, and along with that a lot of attention.
This airdrop meta continues today with emerging blockchain game Archons offering Mad Lads an early entry into their own NFT collection.
A move which instantly delivered the ‘WAO Effect’ in their Discord.
Crypto changed forever in the Blink of an eye 👁️
Blinks (blockchain links) transforms crypto transactions by turning their access point into a simple link which can be shared on Twitter (and eventually Discord, Reddit etc.)
Dialect is the team of mad scientists behind (Actions) and Blinks, the latest in a long line of groundbreaking products which they have built for Solana.
Actions are the API, Blinks are the interface.
Actions are a protocol for creating & delivering Solana transactions through URLs, making Solana sharable everywhere
Blinks, or Blockchain Links, are clients that detect Action URLs & unfurl them into full experiences
There is no front end development work required, the Actions API enables a simple copy/past link which enables you to:
Buy NFTs
Swap crypto
Stake SOL
Vote on governance proposals
Place trades
Support creators
Backpack worked with Dialect and Solana to provide day-zero integrations and is now powering dozens (probably hundreds by now) of Blinks.
How to enable Blinks in Backpack Wallet
Settings > Solana > Choose ‘Allow Solana Actions on X’
Users still need a crypto wallet (download Backpack Wallet if you haven’t already 😉) to execute the transactions but there is no longer a need to enter a specific dApp.
Dialect, Backpack, Tensor, Solana and Access Protocol joined a Cointelegraph hosted mega-Space to chat all about Blinks.
Listen to the full recording here.
Friendly reminder, if you leave twitter and go to a new site--you're on a new site and therefore can get rugged. Watch your origin. Read your URL. Always use a burner, and never connect your ledger or main wallet to an app.
Stay safe.
Solana is offering up microgrants for the most interesting Blinks projects, get started building today!
Read more about Actions and Blinks on Solana here.
Everyone is invited to the $ZEX party 👀
Zeta Market’s $ZEX token launched into the cryptoverse this week with listings on all major exchanges along with a Backpack Exchange trading event.
Backpack’s Lucky Trader prize category is highly sought after because it promises a chance at a tremendous prize pool in return for executing just one trade.
The event is live until July 4th, visit Backpack and trade $ZEX today!
You just gotta meme that thang 🎤
A hallmark of Mad Lads and Backpack branding revolves around aligning product content with the most viral memes running through the internet.
The ‘Hawk Tuah’ phenomena is no exception!
They have adopted it at a product level, most recently with the launch of “Experimental Assets” on the Backpack Exchange.
This is a proving ground for emerging memecoins who have a chance to break into the broader crypto meta.
#ScotlandIsTheAlpha with BlockStart event 🦄
Crypto has arrived in the highlands with BlockStart, the first major blockchain event to take place in Glasgow, Scotland.
The August event is nearly a year in the making with a packed roster of panelists - a collection of both Scottish natives and standout founders from around the world.
We're delighted to announce Backpack as an Official Sponsor of BlockStart Scotland!
Fun fact: the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal 🦄
Learn more about BlockStart Scotland, tickets and how you can attend here.
Jupiter’s video editor should get a raise 📹
This supercut which captured Jupiter’s side event during Solana Summit APAC is fomo-inducing as it shows a packed venue filled with crypto’s best and brightest partying the night away.
Do you spot some familiar faces?
Breakpoint 2024 is right around the corner and these caliber of events will be happening on every corner during the biggest Solana crypto conference.
General Admission $500
Developers $250
Students $100
Kai Paula and Jokke Sommers have ice in their veins 🧊
Kai Paula appeared to be impervious to near-zero temperatures during his episode of the Ice Bath Interviews.
It was the second installment of the new series (with Lyon Farrell appearing first) which features Roster members being peppered by questions while sitting in an ice bath.
Jokke Sommers (pronounced YOKE-EEE) made an appearance wearing what appears to be a Backpack-design wingsuit which he will use to leap off a cliff face and hurtle back to the earth before deploying a parachute.
The guy travels the world on a sailboat and jumps of cliffs for fun.
MAD!
Crypto founders are flocking to Japan 🗾
Tokyo, Japan is slowly but surely emerging as a boomtown for crypto in response to their blockchain friendly regulatory requirements and active support from the Japanese government.
Backpack, Orca and countless other crypto platforms have headquartered in the city and there are IRL blockchain events on a weekly basis.
Armani Ferrante will take his place on top of the stage at EDCON 2024, learn more about the event and how to attend this free event here.
Founders Villa is bigger and better than ever 🏢
Founders Villa by Superteam AE is a communal co-living experience for founders building the most exciting products on Solana alongside a steady stream of VCs and angel investors.
50 applicants were accepted during the inaugural Founders Villa and Superteam UAE is doubling the pool to 100 founders this round.
live and work with 100+ Solana builders
get noticed by 80+ VCs and angel investors
unlock growth opportunities in the Middle East
Apply to join the Founders Villa here.
Blockasset shows real world impact with UFC 🥊
Blockasset, one of the longest running sports-centric platforms on Solana, appeared on UFC 203 as one of main event partners.
Blockasset entered a multiyear deal with UFC which places their branding across the entirety of the UFC product line.
As UFC’s first-ever Official Digital Fan Interaction Partner, Blockasset will receive high visibility branding inside the world-famous Octagon during select Pay Per Views and Fight Nights.
UFC
Users of Blockasset wager on sports events, win VIP event experiences, attend athlete training sessions and receive first releases of athlete content
Blockasset has a clear mission to create value for fans and athletes through blockchain technology. Now, as the Global Digital Fan Interaction Partner, they get the opportunity to deliver their innovative suite of products that complement UFC's brand and help drive more value to fans through Web3 technology.
Joe McCann, Lead Strategic Advisor of Blockasset
mtndao returns to Salt Lake City for entire month of August ⛰️
mtndao is back with another high altitude installment of their Salt Lake City based hacker house.
The month-long event provides a coworking space where panels, discussions and workshops are held (when they’re not on the slopes).
mtndao offers a blend of interactive workshops, coding sessions, and collaborative projects. Dive deep into the Solana ecosystem with hands-on technical support, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and forge connections with like-minded developers.
mtndao welcomes builders at all stages of their journey, from seasoned professionals to budding enthusiasts. Whether you are a Solana developer or a Web2 developer (with skills in Rust, C++, Python, TypeScript/JS, Java, or GoLang), this summit is tailored to enrich your blockchain expertise.
$115,000 in prizes up for grabs in Solana Speedrun Game Jam 🎮
MagicBlock’s third Solana Speedrun Game Jam is underway with hundreds of blockchain game developers battling away for a chance at over $100K in grants and prizes.
“Last Forever” is the theme of the Speedrun, a unique competition type where developers have a limited amount of time (7 days in this case) to create a brand new game from scratch.
Most challengers participate remotely however there are numerous IRL locations participating this year including
London
Munich
Berlin
Istanbul
New York
Find a “curated list of the best resources, tools and tutorials” needed to build games on Solana here.
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
Validated
Austin chats with FP Lee (Sanctum) about the liquid staking landscape on Solana. They discuss the architectural differences between staking on Solana and other blockchains, such as Ethereum, and how seemingly trivial implementation details have profound downstream implications for builders.
FP breaks down Sanctum's product suite and the full range of LSTs that the ecosystem currently utilizes - Validator LSTs, Project-based LSTs, Individual LSTs, No-Loss Lottery LSTs, and more. They also reflect on the potential issues of liquidity during market downturns and the extent to which blockchain foundations should play an interventionist role.
Solana Bytes
Solana Actions are specification-compliant APIs that return transactions on the Solana blockchain to be previewed, signed, and sent across a number of various contexts, including QR codes, buttons + widgets, and websites across the internet.
Actions make it simple for developers to integrate the things you can do throughout the Solana ecosystem right into your environment, allowing you to perform blockchain transactions without needing to navigate away to a different app or webpage.
Lightspeed
This week we invite Tristan Frizza to the show to discuss the future of onchain trading as he builds out Zeta markets. We deep dive into Zeta's token launch, why they built an L2, the path ahead for Zeta & much more.
This week we're joined by Zano Sherwani for a discussion on the future of Solana & Jito in 2024 & beyond. We deep dive into the Jito origin story, why users are being sandwiched, Firedancer's unlock & more.
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