Mad News Issue #58 🗺️ Solana Economic Zones (SEZ)
This week we cover Eclipse x Backpack, 'Buy The Dip' quest on Backpack Exchange, an exclusive offer for Mad Lads holders and the introduction of Solana Economic Zones (SEZ). Fock it.
Welcome to the Mad News! 📰
Veteran crypto tokens listed on Backpack Exchange 🪙
Enable Blinks in Backpack to unlock a whole new world on X/Twitter 👁️
Eclipsing the competition 🌑
WHEN I DIP YOU DIP WE DIP 📊
Keystone offers Mad Lads holders an exclusive deal 🔐
Solana Economic Zones (SEZ) are the new network state 🗺️
Hold me closer, Firedancer 🔥💃
…and much more!
Veteran crypto tokens listed on Backpack Exchange 🪙
$LDO and $AAVE markets are live on Backpack Exchange.
Lido and Aave are veterans in the blockchain space, the Ethereum staking and lending tools are some of the most well known brands in crypto.
Learn more about $LDO and $AAVE with Learn articles in Backpack Support Center.
Enable Blinks in Backpack to unlock a whole new world on X/Twitter 👁️
If you haven’t already enabled Blinks in Backpack, what are you waiting for?
Blinks transforms your Twitter/X experience by integrating crypto transaction links directly on the platform.
Follow the steps in the video or the instructions located below.
How to enable Blinks in Backpack Wallet
Settings > Solana > Choose ‘Allow Solana Actions on X’
Eclipsing the competition 🌑
The Backpack partnership playbook is in full swing once again with SVM+EVM hybrid Eclipse.
A single 🎒emoji has announced numerous Backpack partnerships with Solana and Ethereum powerhouses.
Eclipse is an Ethereum-based L2 whose developer tools are compatible with Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) programs.
Eclipse utilizes Solana to parallel process transactions that would take a long amount of time on Ethereum.
ETH is still the primary gas token (how to pay for fees) when using Eclipse.
There are several brands building EVM/SVM compatible L2s but Eclipse has emerged as one of the most prominent deployments.
WHEN I DIP YOU DIP WE DIP 📊
Buy The Dip rewards traders with the keenest acumen for timing the market bottom.
Buy BTC, ETH and SOL at their lowest price to win $1000 for each pair.
BTC Champion | $1000 USDC
ETH Champion | $1000 USDC
SOL Champion | $1000 USDC
Buy The Dip is a new quest model for the Backpack Exchange.
Rewards are typically issued to the traders who have generated the most volume for a specific token pair.
LAD OF THE WEEK: token (a.k.a. Michael "Mad Lad" Pinto) 👏
This longtime Lad took one step closer to the Backpack team with his move to join Frictionless Capital and focus on supporting crypto builders.
Bullish on Armani Ferrante & the Backpack mafia
He has deep ties to the traditional private capital world and has focused his efforts in the technology and crypto fields for several years.
token has been a part of the Backpack and Mad Lads story from the very beginning and you will find his name throughout the early comment sections.
My introduction to crypto came in 2017 when I fell deep down the rabbit hole of permissionless blockchains, cryptography, and meme culture [s/o CryptoKitties].
He has contributed to the Mad Lads ecosystem with numerous threads and write ups about the brand, specifically tackling the finance perspective.
There is $22.5 Billion in capital being rotated through various NFT collections.
cryptopunks -> bayc -> degods -> azuki -> pudgy/mad lads
Let me explain how the rotation of works, and where we are going.
The circular flow of capital (between collections) in NFTs is a very real thing in current state, there are six unique chains that dominate NFT land, with three leading the pack (SOL, ETH, BTC).
FYI: $22.5 Billion is not a lot, Warner Brother Studios is ranked 793 in total market cap yet they are worth more than all NFTs (we're so early).
Congratulations on your exciting new position with Frictionless Capital, the Lads community supports you every step of the way.
Give token a follow on Twitter/X if you haven’t already, Lads follow Lads!
Road to EDCON, Ethereum in Japan 🇯🇵
Backpack has embraced Ethereum builders via product integrations with both Wallet and Exchange since the earliest beta stages.
A majority of new token listings on the Exchange are Ethereum-based and the Wallet’s newly integrated networks are Ethereum L2s (Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and Polygon).
Armani Ferrante is slated to speak on the main stage of EDCON, Ethereum’s largest APAC event of the year at the end of July in Tokyo.
Gonzalo (@MonkDoesnt) and Can (@GoLadsCS) joined the team for a “Road to EDCON” interview
They leaked new integration alpha, described moving headquarters to Tokyo, discussed community building and explored Ethereum network interoperability in the Backpack Wallet.
Listen to the full interview here.
Keystone offers Mad Lads holders an exclusive deal on custom design hardware wallet 🔐
Backpack Wallet launched with built in Ledger hardware wallet support and is now expanding support for Trezor and Keystone.
Keystone is the newest reputable hardware wallet to launch and is looking to make a splash in the Mad Lads community.
Lads, circle July 15 in your calendar & get ready to secure your 1:1 custom Keystone at a jaw-dropping 50% discount.
At only $124.5, exclusively for Mad Lads holders 🌟
Making it more affordable than our standard Keystone priced at $149 🔥
Solana Economic Zones (SEZ) are the new network state 🗺️
Solana adds another acronym to the crypto lexicon with ‘SEZ’, or, Solana Economic Zones.
FORMA is working to place Solana technology in the hands of local communities around the world with SEZ’s.
They will be deployed in a similar fashion to IRL hacker houses, hackathons and coworking events that Solana has perfected over the last several years.
Founders, builders, investors, lawmakers, trad business operators, local governments and anyone else interested in leveraging the blockchain will have a location to meet and explore the industry.
Our vision is to co-create Solana Economic Zones (SEZs) around the world, hand-in-hand with the Solana and local communities.
The purpose of a Solana Economic Zone is to build bridges between the web3 economy and Nation’s economies, to help both prosper exponentially.
In the long-run, SEZs will be a magnet and home for some of the world’s best talent to do their best work, and live their best lives.
Argentina is the flagship LaTAM (Latin America) deployment of SEZ with plans to expand into:
MEA (Middle East and Africa)
APAC (Asia-Pacific)
Europe
Argentina is primed to be positively impacted by crypto technology as they are working through one of the worst financial periods of the countries history.
Solana’s killer app is financial freedom. Forma is an ambitious project to accelerate technological progress and economic prosperity in Argentina
Hold me closer, Firedancer 🔥💃
ImmuneFi announced one of the largest bug bounty programs in the recent history for the long-anticipated Firedancer validator client.
Bug bounty programs are designed to reward hackers for discovering software vulnerabilities which can compromise user information, platform funds and more.
ImmuneFi is a platform built to host bug bounty programs which provides a clear framework for requirements, submissions and rewards.
$1,000,000 USD is available in rewards for finding bugs in Firedancer v0.1 codebase of about 200,000 nSLOC. KYC is required.
Firedancer v0.1 team will respond within 24 hours on weekdays to all bug reports. Any technical questions and support requests can be asked directly to Firedancer v0.1 or Immunefi in the Firedancer v0.1 Boost Discord channel.
Firedancer was fully unveiled at Breakpoint 2022 to raucous applause and has been a constant topic of conversation in the subsequent years.
The validator client aims to take Solana’s already fast and inexpensive blockchain transactions to a completely new level of performance.
Firedancer is coded in C which scales low-level memory management, it utilizes parallel processing to manage blockchain transactions and more efficiently integrates with Solana’s Proof of History (PoH) validation structure.
The validator client launched on Solana Testnet this week alongside announcement of the bug bounty program.
The reward pool will be entirely distributed among participants.
If no valid bugs are found, the reward pool will be $50,000 USD
If no High or Critical severity bugs are found, the reward pool will be $250,000 USD
If one or more High severity bugs are found, the reward pool will be $500,000 USD
If 1 Critical severity bug is found, the reward pool will be $700,000 USD
If 2 Critical severity bugs are found, the reward pool will be $800,000 USD
If 3 or more Critical severity bugs are found, the reward pool will be $1,000,000 USD
For this Boost, duplicates are valid for a reward. Private known issues are not valid.
Learn from the biggest crypto builders with Solana Summer Fellowship ☀️
Approved applicants will be guided by Solana’s brightest builders (such as Tristan Yver) during an eight-week program which covers NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, smart contract best practices and much more.
Applications close TODAY, there are only 30 spots available, apply here!
We are excited to introduce the Solana Summer Fellowship 2024 A hands on 8-week program for the best developers to learn building on Solana. On top of that, each fellow will get a $2000 stipend for the fellowship as well.
Weeks will be centred around a theme, and there will be guided quests, exercises, and a Q&A session by an expert in that space, helping fellows not only build but get exposure to open opportunities in the space.
Participants will build their own Solana project during the 8-week Fellowship.
At the end of the event they will introduce their work during a Demo Day for an additional chance to win from the large (and growing) pile of grants available on Solana.
Learn more about Summer Fellowship 2024 and apply to join here.
Solana Talent Olympics Unveils $20,000 Prize Tracks ⚽
Superteam collaborated with Turbine and Rise In to host the first-ever Solana Talent Olympics.
In addition to $20,000 in prizes, winners will earn an interview with Solana’s biggest builders.
120+ developers from India, Vietnam, Nigeria, Turkey, the Philippines and many more battled it out for a chance to win $1000 USDC prizes for 10x tracks.
Developers who earn the most submission points will be considered for an additional $10,000 prize pool along with guaranteed interviews from 45+ of Solana’s biggest brands such as:
Helius
Jito
Squads
Drift
Sanctum
Tensor
Backpack
DecentraGrants delivers their first report card ✍️
DecentraGrants is another grant platform which has worked hand-in-hand with the Solana Foundation to provide strategic, milestone-based funding for builders.
A Deanslist project, DecentraGrants is focused on blockchain governance and DAO technology which will help increase decentralization of crypto.
They announced a $60,000 grant pool at the end of 2023 and just delivered their first update on the program.
DecentraGrants first six months on a high level:
Applications received: 116
Funds allocated: $33,500
Funds remaining: $26,500
Apply for a DecentraGrant here.
Solana Summit APAC grows to become Solana’s largest regional event 🌏
Solana Summit APAC is one of the largest Solana-native IRL events which draws top talent from across the world (it may be second only to Breakpoint in attendance).
The event was hosted at the end of June and they have been dripping content ever since.
The Solana community exceeded all our expectations:
⚡️1900+ applicants
🗺️ 55+ countries
🤝 70% attendees are oversees
🎉 50% are founders and developers
One of the most notable alpha leaks came from Solana Foundation’s Jon Wong who broke the silence on Blinks before it was officially announced.
Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver joined to participate in 1:1 interviews and panel conversations on the main stage (Kuala Lumpur is around a ~7 hour flight from Backpack headquarters, Tokyo).
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
Validated (The CBDC Debate Part 1)
Austin and Amira (Head of Policy, Solana Foundation) chat with Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN), a champion of the the recently passed CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act.
Congressman Emmer details his concerns about government surveillance through CBDCs, emphasizing his beliefs in individual privacy and financial freedom.
Validated (The CBDC Debate Part 2)
In this second episode on CBDCs, Austin and Amira return to chat with Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL). Foster recently voted against the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act.
Unlike Congressman Emmer, Foster believes in the importance of controlled privacy, distinguishing between continuous government surveillance and the ability to de-anonymize transactions under specific legal circumstances.
He elaborates on his point of view, suggesting that traceable wallets will prove to be a cornerstone of fighting financial crimes.
Solana Changelog
Removing deprecated code, new web3.js, and blinks.xyz
Commits:
Raoul Pal | The Journey Man
Raoul welcomes Chris Burniske, partner at the crypto VC firm Placeholder, for a wide-ranging conversation on where we're at in the macro-crypto cycle and what the future of digital assets investing looks like.
They cover airdrops, liquidity factors, how to manage information flow, and so much more.
Lightspeed
We explore Infinex’s mission to unlock DeFi by massively improving the onchain user experience. We discuss Kain’s crypto journey to date, the impact fees have on UX, and Infinex’s decision to integrate Solana.
Finally, we cover the Craterun yield farming campaign, and how the current token meta could be broken.
Unlayered
Sal and Dave joined by Ryan Connor of Blockworks Research to discuss his recent controversial report on the soaring $TON ecosystem, highlighting the bear case and why Ryan believes $TON is currently overvalued.
We also leverage Ryan's former career as a macro expert to discuss the state of the market, moneyness claims around Bitcoin and Eth, before getting into the memecoin mania and why Ryan doesn't believe it will ever go away.
Token
Today's guest is none other than Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO of The Sandbox, a web3 gaming platform that allows users to become content creators and experience the true depths of the metaverse