TL;DR
A 10,000-piece xNFT collection called Mad Lads is available on the Solana blockchain (more on this later).
The Backpack wallet is built with xNFTs in mind. It functions as an operating system for xNFTs, enabling users to manage private keys and access dapps and allowing the user to accomplish everything in a single wallet.
Ferrante stated, "We're struggling to make ends meet—more than 70 percent of the money we raised in Coral's $20 million strategic round last autumn isn't available because of FTX's demise.
Introduction
Mad Lads, which began with a crazy crew, amazing artwork, and a honeypot, has grown to be one of Solana's largest NFT communities.
Degods and Yoots made the decision to switch to a different blockchain just as Solana was beginning to recover from the effects of the FTX crash. Madlads saved the day when the Solana ecosystem most needed a victory, seizing the Solana NFT throne with their exceptional performance.
Isn't it ridiculous how guys with the motto "Fock it" become aristocrats?
A 10,000-piece xNFT collection called Mad Lads is available on the Solana blockchain (more on this later). A variety of unique characteristics are exhibited by the male and female characters in the artwork, which include celestial creatures, well-known scientists, pop culture, the undead, and many more.
Because of its distinctive artwork, the Mad Lad community—which is made up of supporters, producers, builders, and founders—represents a varied range of backgrounds.
xNFTs
In the Solana ecosystem, xNFTs, or executable NFTs, are a new token standard. Users may easily incorporate apps into their digital wallets with this cutting-edge capability.
xNFTs are similar to mobile phone applications in principle. Since these apps can be integrated right into the digital assets they represent, owners of the assets can use them anyway they see fit within the application itself, cutting out the need to connect to an outside platform. The Backpack team is leading the way in this innovation, which is described as "The next generation of NFTs" and is safer, easier to use, and more.
The Backpack wallet is built with xNFTs in mind. It functions as an operating system for xNFTs, enabling users to manage private keys and access decentralised apps (dapps) and allowing the user to accomplish everything in a single wallet.
The original NFTs of the backpack wallet are crazy guys. The Mad Lads xNFTs were created to outline the features that could be included in the backpack wallet, like -
token-gated chats
soulbound inventory
collection locking
loyalty rewards
embedded mints, and claims
Founding Story
Coral, a Solana framework development business, is the creator of the Mad Lads collection. They also constructed Anchor, a popular Solana toolkit for developers, and Backpack, a Solana wallet and exchange. Armani Ferrante, who began his professional career at Apple, founded Coral. His passion for blockchain technology prompted him to resign and start writing open-source Ethereum code. He worked with Alameda Research for a short time before joining the Solana team and making contributions to the Layer 1 blockchain.
Subsequently, he established Coral, a Web3 developer platform that gave rise to Anchor, the most well-liked smart contract development framework in Solana. Ferrante persevered in developing despite obstacles like FTX's demise, demonstrating his fortitude and commitment to the Web3 industry. Ferrante persevered in developing despite obstacles like FTX's demise, demonstrating his fortitude and commitment to the Web3 industry.
Mad Lads BackStory
First revealed to the public on February 1, 2023, the Mad Lad xNFT collection was brought to light by backpack co-founder yver, who stated that the Lads take inspiration from various instances of “madness” to serve as a reminder to both themselves and others that positive change can be achieved through perseverance and a willingness to think beyond the box.
The Mad Lads are distinguished by their various takes on what "madness" means. Some are compared to painters like Picasso and Van Gogh in that they push the boundaries of society.
Some are motivated by an unwavering enthusiasm to accomplish their objectives, emulating the tenacity of historical leaders such as Gandhi and Steve Jobs. Finally, there are those—athletes like Kai Lenny and explorers like David Blaine—who push the envelope of human potential and encourage others to set higher goals.
Early in February, the collection Whitelist (Madlist) was distributed; it could only be claimed using the backpack wallet. The Madlist tokens were non-transferable since they were soulbound. This action significantly reduced the amount of unlawful madlist spots being sold. With the support of well-known Solana personalities and NFT communities like Degenape Academy, Cets on Crek, Claynosaurz, etc., Mad Lads gained increasing traction.
The Mad Lads crew relentlessly disseminated information about the impending mint by leaping from space to space and podcast to podcast. In the end, it was revealed that the Madlist and public mint will happen on April 19 and 20, respectively, for 6.9 sol and would only be available through the Backpack wallet.
NFT fanatics fought for a seat on the Madlist, and until the Madlist closed on April 17, 2023, it was like a battle zone. Finally, the day of the Madlist mint arrived. Everything went smoothly, and roughly 6000 NFTs were left for the public mint. Regretfully, the Public mint lacked almost the same smoothness. A number of unidentified threats to destroy the Mad Lad mint were reportedly received by the Mad Lad team.
Ferrante claims that the individual effectively threatened to overwhelm the mint with requests via a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) assault and demanded payment to stop.
We lacked the necessary funds. Ferrante stated, "We're struggling to make ends meet—more than 70 percent of the money we raised in Coral's $20 million strategic round last autumn isn't available because of FTX's demise.
HoneyPot Bitch
Their post title after the public mint read was "Honeypot Bitch." The Honeypot was nothing more than a trap set up to deceive these machines into paying for a fictitious NFT rather than the actual one. This strategy was designed to prevent unethical participation and protect the project's resources.
The minting application was used in two versions: a public, legal version and a covert version that could only be found by reverse-engineering the code. The concealed variant resulted in the fraudulent agreement, drawing in excess of $250,000 in cryptocurrency (SOL) from individuals trying to take advantage of the minting procedure.
In the end, individuals who had tried to game the system by interacting with the fictitious contract were barred from taking part in the official public NFT drop. The honeypot money was eventually returned in good standing. This one-of-a-kind gesture proved to be a huge marketing hit! Everyone was praising the stunt's inventiveness and the team's genuine concern for the community.
Then the unimaginable occurred. The collection's sales volume of $8 million exceeded the total sales volume of the top NFT collections on all blockchains combined in a 24-hour period. The collection has increased steadily ever since.