Mad News Issue #63 🔵 Long Live NFTs
Mad News Issue #63 🔵 Long Live NFTs
Mad Lads party in Taipei, the latest Mad Lads airdrops (tokens and NFTs), Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver hit the speakers circuit, After School Club NFT collection honors Backpack and much more.
Welcome to the Mad News!
Mad Lads party in Taipei, the latest Mad Lads airdrops (tokens and NFTs), Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver hit the speakers circuit, After School Club NFT collection honors Backpack, Native Token Transfers goes live in Wallet and much more. Fock it.
Mad Lads party the night away in Taipei 💃
Mad Lads were treated to complimentary food and drink along with a DJ filling the airwaves last week in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.
The Mad Lads x Backpack x Solana event drew a large crowd who spent the night talking shop about cryptocurrency and the future of blockchains.
Armani Ferrante is speaking in Singapore during TOKEN2049 and Solana Breakpoint 🎥
Mad Lads and Backpackers take note that founder Armani Ferrante will be making several onstage appearances next month in Singapore.
In addition to the officially scheduled speaking spots, there are two Mad Lads and Backpack side events planned (RSVP details will be released soon).
Armani warmed up his on-stage skills this weekend with a Superteam Japan session along with Backpack co-founder Tristan Yver.
Learn more about the new and rapidly growing Superteam Japan further down.
Mad Lads to receive token airdrop from Zero1 Labs 🪙
25,000 $DEAI tokens are earmarked for Mad Lads holders who complete a few simple tasks on Zero1 Labs, an AI protocol building on chain solutions.
Follow the link which is embedded in the post above to make your claim.
Sippin on digital vino with dVIN Labs 🍷
dVIN Labs is including Mad Lads in their $VIN token generation event (TGE) with a complimentary (NFT) bottle of champagne.
dVIN is on a mission to decentralize the $1 trillion dollar wine industry by connecting producers directly to consumers using (#OnlyPossibleOnSolana) DePIN and RWA tokenization.
RWA stands for "real world assets".
The wine-centric Solana platform is showing up to Breakpoint with 4,000 bottles of (real) champagne and plans to distribute them during the official Breakpoint afterparty.
LAD OF THE WEEK: Mad ICE 🧊
Congratulations to our LOTW, Mad Ice!
Community generated content is a cornerstone of web3 and holders like Mad ICE are the backbone of Mad Lads lore.
Mad ICE embodies the concept that "small, consistent actions lead to big results" and consequently has become a fixture in the Lads community.
Always an ardent supporter, Mad ICE's persistence with easily consumable content has gained a solid reputation in the Lads circle.
In addition to his online persona Mad ICE is a fixture in one of the Mad Lads largest regional communities, Vietnam.
If you haven't already followed Mad ICE, do it now!
Lyon Farrell = Fock It. 🏂
Winter Olympics hopeful and Roster member Lyon Farrell is grinding hard to take his skills to the next level.
Hawaiian born, the Mad Lad has aligned with his fathers home country of New Zealand and is slated to represent the Kiwis during the 2026 games.
Lyon is an active competitor in World Championships and World Cups with numerous wins and top ten finishes.
He ranks as a Top 20 snowboarder in the world.
Total Eclipse of the Backpack 🧱
Users and developers on the Eclipse blockchain (an SVM L2) are now fully supported by the Backpack Wallet.
Eclipse is in the process of launching their own community NFT collection called After School Club.
Although there are few details about the collection size, mint dates and utility, they leaked a Backpack-inspired trait.
The teaser hints at a Mad Lads trait too 👀
Native Token Transfers, so hot right now 🔥
Backpack and Wormhole have worked together lockstep since the beginning of the year, first to power cross chain swaps between Solana <-> Ethereum and now with Native Token Transfers.
Their Native Token Transfers (NTT) improves on the traditional Wormhole token bridge infrastructure which 'wraps' tokens and makes them available for use on different blockchains.
NTT remove complexity and costs from the bridge process while also maintaining the tokens intrinsic properties.
Instead of wrapping tokens, NTT enables direct transfer of native tokens across blockchains.
Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers (NTT) is an open source, flexible, and composable framework for transferring tokens across blockchains.
Integrators have full control over how their tokens that use NTT behave on each chain, including the token standard, metadata, ownership, upgradeability, and custom features.
Backpack continues to lock in boosted rewards with DeFi platforms 📈
Add BlockMesh Network (@blockmesh_xyz) to the long list of platforms who place Backpack and Mad Lads on top of their rewards mechanisms.
BlockMesh is a Colosseum (@ColosseumOrg) alum and first place winner, they are a DePIN network that allows anyone to easily monetize their excess bandwidth.
Every gladiator needs a quality Backpack ⚔️
marginfi's newest product, The Arena, is an application which introduces liquidity for small market-cap tokens which expands trading options.
TL;DR it enables leveraged long and short positions on *any* Solana token.
If you're interested in learning more about the new technology, Solana Legend and Backpack are hosting a Space with The Arena this week.
deBridge Season 1 coming to a close, check token allocations with Backpack Wallet 🔎
Securely check your $DBR token allocations inside the Backpack Wallet without risk of connecting to a compromised dapp.
Importantly, this is currently live on the Solana network only however you can check Ethereum allocations on the deBridge's official website.
Superteam Japan hosts it's inaugural event and kicks off Tokyo Startup Village 🗾
Japan is one of the fastest growing regions for not only Solana (Superteam Japan) but the greater crypto ecosystem as well.
As the Japanese government embraced the blockchain industry, crypto builders flocked to the country (including Backpack which is headquartered in Tokyo).
The APAC country was one of the first to officially recognize the validity and usefulness of decentralization and crypto payments dating back to the early days of Bitcoin.
Since then Japan has created numerous governing bodies to create solid framework for businesses to operate in.
Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA)
Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA)
Japan Security Token Offering Association (JSTOA)
Because Solana SEZ so 🇦🇷
The first Solana Economic Zone opens it's doors in Buenos Aires, Argentina this week with 150 of Solana's most talented builders in attendance.
We’re a community of founders, builders, creators, investors, and policy leaders seeking to contribute to the world through our work and art.
We’re a think tank that works with techno-optimistic countries to create Solana Economic Zones.
FORMA
FORMA is described as "the Solana Network State" and heads up the new Solana Economic Zones (SEZs) movement.
Argentina was chosen as the first location due to the countries embrace of alternative currencies in face of massive inflation and political unrest.
Vending machines use Solana to power crypto payments 📱
Selecta is one of the oldest food service operations in Europe (est. 1957) which operates in nearly every vertical of the industry.
Over the last few decades they have focused on innovating vending machines with Solana powered USDC payments as their latest offering.
As Jeremy Allaire said "smart money meets smart devices".
Chaque seconde compte ⏱️
Vous pouvez maintenant payer en USDC sur les smart fridges @enjoyselecta !
Uniquement possible avec Solana 🤝
Superteam France
PODCAST CORNER
Validated
How Zeta Markets’ L2 Makes a DEX Feel Like a CEX w/ Tristan Frizza
In this episode, Austin chats with Tristan Frezza about Zeta Markets, a decentralized perps trading platform on Solana. Tristan shares insights on Zeta's inception in early 2021 and their mission to bring Nasdaq-like derivatives markets on-chain.
The conversation delves into the technical challenges of building such a platform in a fully decentralized manner, the benefits and drawbacks of different trading mechanisms, and the ongoing development of Zeta Markets' L2 solution optimized for high-speed trading.
Tristan elaborates on the importance of transparency, security, and the philosophical approach of open DeFi systems, as well as future plans to enhance Zeta's trading infrastructure.
Unlayered
Building Solana Economic Zones I Farhaj Mayan, Forma
This week, Dave speaks with Farhaj Mayan from Forma to better understand their recent announcement about creating the world's first Solana Economic Zone in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Argentina's recent history of high inflation and a crypto-savvy population makes it the ideal first step to showcase the benefits that such an economic arrangement could have for Argentinian citizens, and hopefully other citizens around the world as the economic model is rolled out elsewhere.
Solana Changelog
See links to github documentation, commits and further resources in the comment section.
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Additionally, we dive into how Proof of Work concepts can solve the fair launch problem. Finally, Hardhat Chad gives us insight into the upcoming Ore game being developed.
Raydium’s Rise to the Top | 0xInfra
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Additionally, we looked back on the early days of Raydium, where they are today, and where they are heading next!
Logan Jastremski
Solana's outperformance and the emergence of secular winners with Ryan Watkins | EP #140
Ryan Watkins is the Co-Founder of Syncracy Capital: A thesis-driven hedge fund making high conviction, concentrated investments in the secular winners of the crypto economy.
Bloomberg Television
'Very Interested in Solana Ecosystem': Cypherpunk CEO
Cypherpunk CEO Leah Wald says the company is very interested in Solana development and is ramping up staking.
She also discusses crypto ETFs in an interview with Katie Greifeld and Tim Stenovec on "Bloomberg Crypto."
REWIND! Solfate Podcast
Armani Ferrante: building a blockchain company and community
We get a glimpse into the personality of Armani Ferrante, the creator of the Anchor Framework and Founder of Coral, the organization behind xNFTs, MadLads, and the Backpack wallet.
Armani shares his thoughts on leadership and his mindset about leading by example. Empowering others to get things done.