Mad News #57 🇻🇳 Mad Lads Vietnam Takeover Hanoi
This week we cover Backpack's newest hire, developers reputation as consummate shippors, Vietnam community meetup, listing the $MOTHER token, how Blinks have singlehandedly changed crypto. Fock it.
Welcome to the Mad News!
Referral Rewards and Quest prizes distributed weekly 🎁
Regulators, mount up (it was a clear #SolanaSummer night) ☀️
Backpack devs demonstrate masterclass in agile engineering 💻
Mad Lads community meetup takes over Hanoi, Vietnam 🇻🇳
Jokke Sommer takes Backpack to unheralded heights 🪂
Backpack and cat coins go hand in hand 🐱
Introducing $MOTHER token listing to Backpack Exchange 🪙
Leveraging Blinks to support pro-crypto regulation ✅
…and much more!
Referral Rewards and Quest prizes distributed weekly 🎁
Referrals net Backpack Exchange users 30% of all future trading fees for every person who signs up.
Users can generate a link in Backpack Exchange or provide referrals with their custom username to be used during sign up (e.g.https://backpack.exchange/refer/benzel).
Both Referral Rewards and Quest prizes are distributed via the Rewards menu, historically this occurs on Friday afternoons, Tokyo local time.
In the case of ‘$ZEX and Earn’ participants claimed a total of 250,000 $ZEX:
1 Lucky Trader | 20,000 $ZEX
Top 10 Traders | 115.000 $ZEX
Top 70% of Traders | 115,000 $ZEX
Regulators, mount up (it was a clear #SolanaSummer night) ☀️
Backpack has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two years to a current headcount of around sixty full time team members including engineers, designers, operations, support, accounting and regulation.
Backpack’s mission to set new standards in crypto for transparency, auditability and accountability has led to the assembly of a uniquely talented regulatory department who have intimate experience in both traditional finance and DeFi.
Laurence King is the latest addition to the team.
The longtime exec of historical finance brands like Citi Bank, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase will be integral in establishing Backpack as a reputable, robust crypto brand.
I am thrilled to join Backpack at this pivotal moment in its journey. The digital asset space holds tremendous potential, but it has often been marred by a lack of robust audit practices and controls.
Despite having only launched in November 2023, Backpack has already demonstrated a strong commitment to compliance and accountability, and I am excited to spearhead its efforts to build out our global audit and compliance frameworks, and help enhance integrity and transparency in the cryptocurrency industry.
Backpack is *always* hiring:
Mobile Engineer (React Native)
Systems Engineer (Rust)
Wallet Engineer (React Web)
Front-End Engineer (React Web)
Security Engineer
Infrastructure (Rust, Devops)
Payment / Fiat Engineer (Rust)
Product Design
Bookmark the Jobs board and check back regularly for updates.
Backpack devs demonstrate masterclass in agile engineering 💻
Backpack’s engineering team is comprised of less than a dozen devs who have delivered significant material updates to Wallet and Exchange on a weekly basis for the better part of two years.
What makes this feat particular interesting is that until early-2024 there were only a handful of developers actively building.
Exchange work began less than a year ago and has already surpassed numerous competitors in monthly active users (along with a myriad of other business indicators).
Wallet development has kept pace and dropped numerous new features.
Base blockchain network support added
Backpack Wallet launched on day one with multichain support for both Solana and Ethereum.
Since then they have expanded to add Arbitrum, Solana Devnet, Ethereum Sepolia (Ethereum’s testnet) and now Base.
Base is an Ethereum-based L2 whose aim is to drastically lower transaction fees and increase ease of use for builders.
Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base token swaps
Cross chain swaps across Ethereum and Solana were released several months ago after integrating the Wormhole Bridge.
Now users of those networks can rely on Backpack for a more common activity: token swaps.
The only Spam we like comes in a can
Receiving an avalanche of spam NFTs became a shared community experience once compressed NFT (cNFT) technology became possible on Solana.
Spam NFTs pose two particular problems:
They oftentimes contain malicious links which can compromise and drain unsuspecting users.
The sheer amount of NFTs clutters up the Collectibles menu and makes it nearly unmanageable.
Backpack has engineered several tools to help manage spam NFTs in your Wallet.
cNFTs drastically reduced mint and distribution costs compared to traditional NFTs on Solana.
The low cost to create a cNFT and deliver it directly to Solana users created an onslaught of uninvited spam in millions of wallets.
Mad Lads community meetup takes over Hanoi, Vietnam 🇻🇳
Dozens of holders from across Vietnam traveled to Hanoi to celebrate #SolanaSummer and the Mad Lads.
Mad Meetups in Vietnam are becoming a regular occurrence as the community has self organized events dating back as far as early July, 2023 (just months after the collection was minted)
LADS AND LASSIES OF THE WEEK: Mad Lads Vietnam ❤️
Our LOTW’s are none other than the 200+ members who make up the Mad Lads Vietnam community!
The community is made up of NFT degens, advance crypto traders, traditional industry moguls and crypto builders.
It will come as no surprise that Vietnam ranks as one of the most active regions for both Backpack Exchange and Wallet.
Mad News has a close connection to the group and have featured numerous stories about the community as well as a full length interview with founders of Mad Lads Vietnam.
The community has not gone without it’s own struggles, their established Twitter/X account was compromised several months ago and they had to start over again.
Follow Mad Lads Vietnam and help them grow!
Jokke Sommer takes Backpack to unheralded heights 🪂
Jokke Sommer makes the Mad News headlines for a second week in a row as he unveils a Backpack branded parachute while rapidly careening through the sky.
The extreme sports legend is constantly traveling the world to create content so you can expect this is just a taste of the Backpack parachute.
Backpack and cat coins go hand in hand 🐱
Cat coins like POPCAT, SC, WEN and MEW have dominated the Backpack Wallet swaps since their inception.
Solana has an affinity for felines and Backpack is becoming the preferred destination to trade the whiskered tokens.
Download the Backpack Wallet today and embrace your inner grimalkin.
Introducing $MOTHER token listing to Backpack Exchange 🪙
$MOTHER emerged as one of the most popular memecoins on Solana alongside an endorsement and ongoing support from international baddie Iggy Azalea.
Backpack Exchange listed $MOTHER for trading last week.
Ticker: $MOTHER
Circulating Supply: 986,143,333
Total Supply: 986,143,333
Max Supply: 989,998,941
$MOTHER's rise to Solana token fame is on the back of both community created memes and Iggy's celebrity media machine.
Trade MOTHER on Backpack Exchange.
They came, they saw, they Blinked 👁️
Blinks singlehandedly changed the way we interact with the blockchain within just a few weeks of being launched.
Hundreds of builders have created Blinks which range from crypto staking and swaps to political donations and IRL purchases.
👁️182 blink implementations in 182 hours.
Blinks brings crypto directly to Twitter, a user simply clicks a link and their Blinks-enabled Wallet will connect and initiate the transaction.
How to enable Blinks in Backpack Wallet
Settings > Solana > Choose ‘Allow Solana Actions on X’
Solana is investing a tremendous amount of resources in Blinks developers and has established a $400,000 grant fund to reward creation of unique Blinks.
Superteam now supports grants for building blockchain links on Solana and recommends applicants with high community reputation scores.
Anyone with an idea or proof of work is welcome to apply and receive a funding decision for a $1000 grant.
In addition to the grant fund, Solana launched ‘Blink Build Days’ which are IRL meetups where builders will learn the basics of Blinks.
View scheduled Blink Build Days here.
Leveraging Blinks to support pro-crypto regulation ✅
Multicoin Capital is matching all SOL donations made through the Sentinel Action Fund Blink until July 15.
Simply enable Solana Actions in your Backpack Wallet and click the ‘Sol Match’ link in Tushar Jain’s (founder of Multicoin) Blinks post here.
One out of five Americans–or approximately 50 million people–own digital assets. Crypto is now one of the most important political issues of the year.
The Sentinel Action Fund is the only conservative Super PAC advancing Pro-Crypto Candidates and supporting Pro-Crypto Innovation in America.
U focking wot m8? 🌧️
Solana Summer is officially here and Hacker House London led the way with a two-day long IRL event which drew hundreds of visitors for a weekend of workshops and coworking.
Demo Days, a hallmark of Solana hacker houses, drew nearly two dozen teams as the presented their products to a panel of judges.
U.K. based Fastmind was selected as the grand prize winner which includes $5000 USDC and a hand full of free Breakpoint 2024 tickets.
Hacker House Bengaluru is next up, the Indian city is known for it’s tech industry.
Solana is hosting the ‘Startup Village’ which lasts from July 16th to July 28th.
Join us at the Startup Village for India's best builders working on Solana projects.
Come learn, earn, and build together and have the time of your life.
Signup for a spot in Startup Village here.
Superteam France put itself on the map with this one 🥖
While London was hopping with Solana maxis, Superteam France hosted their own meetup focused on blockchain gaming.
Superteam France is one of the newest *official* regional Solana community and has already grown by leaps and bounds, 80+ crypto degens attended their first event.
We value the sovereignty that comes with founding a company, the skin in the game that comes with investing, and the joy that comes with getting sh*t done.
In a pre-crypto world, we had to fit into broiler categories — founder, investor, or employee. Crypto allows us to be free-range and be all 3 at the same time.
Superteam launches first ever “The Talent Olympics” for Solana developers ⌨️
The concept is simple: complete challenges and gain entry into the prize pool, the *best* solution for each challenge is the winner.
Participants will have three days to complete their challenges and submit solutions.
The Talent Olympics is designed to help talented developers from around the world get jobs at the best companies on Solana.
To enter, simply complete the developer challenges below. Each challenge has a prize pool for the best submissions, and the participants with the most points globally will split an additional $10,000 prize pool and receive interviews with our hiring partners.
In addition to the prize pools, participants will be viewed underneath a microscope by the biggest platforms on Solana (Helius, Jito, Squads, Drift, Sanctum and more) who are looking to hire top talent and make job offers.
Solana Ecosystem Call returns ☎️
If you don’t have time to monitor crypto Twitter full time then the monthly Solana Ecosystem Call is a must-watch event.
The first Thursday of each month is dedicated to celebrating the most exciting developments in Solana and interviews with the most important builders on the blockchain.
If you can’t make the live showing, it is available to stream after the fact.
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
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Lightspeed
This week we're joined by Swen Schäferjohann for a discussion on Solana's latest scaling unlock... ZK compression.
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Unlayered
This week, Sal catches up with Greg Gotsis from Tiplink to discuss the simplest wallet onboarding experience that we have seen to date.
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