Tristan Iver, NFT Inventor – Cointelegraph Magazine

Most NFT PFP projects have come and gone. The 2021–2022 season, along with lofty expectations, roadmaps and prospects, is largely in the rearview mirror.

But one project, Mad Lads, has emerged from the wreckage of the bear market and established itself as the leading PFP project community on Solana.

What is Mad Lads?

“Lads” was directed by founder Tristan Yver on April 21, 2023, following a rigorous shortlisting process that began 12 months ago. At 6.9 SOL at the time, trading at $144, Lads was a force for good in the Solana ecosystem after the infamous FTX crash raised many questions about the blockchain's long-term viability.

On a wave of Q4 2023 Solana price and interest rate revisions, Mad Lads stock hit an all-time high floor price of 218 SOL in early December 2023, making it one of the top five PFP projects across all chains at the time. . Currently, the floor price is set at 70 SOL ($11,060).

In the year Yever told the magazine that the bond of trauma was instrumental in making the community strong during the tumultuous time in crypto in 2022.

“I think many communities are bound together by common suffering. All these people came in when the time was still very good. Then Luna just started happening, and a lot of people were upset about it. They cooperated in the community. And then FTX happened, and a lot of people had a really bad time. “Then the market continues to shrink,” she said.

“Essentially, this was a mutual injury. It's called trauma bonding. It was this strong bond of trauma in society that made these people essentially irreplaceable. That brought these people together in a way that I don't think you could have shaped in any other environment.

Yever added that Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said they were able to breathe life into the ecosystem for Lads.

“Of course, Anatoly told me that the Mad Lads were the Mad Lads when the Mad Lads spree happened on Solana.”

“I think it was because these people were so connected. It was a real community. The people there weren't there for the money anymore, they were just people who really enjoyed each other. They brought the energy back to the Solana ecosystem,” he said.

Tristan Iver's background

Yever's background history includes a stint at the now-defunct FTX, where he worked his way up from a customer support role to host the FTX Podcast. Before entering the exchange, Yver had completely different jobs, he was not afraid to get his hands dirty to gain experience.

“I've done every job you can imagine. I put myself through college. I have done landscaping, served in restaurants, commercial fishing, been an apprentice and an electrician. I did different things, then went to college, then got a customer support job at FTX. I moved out of the supporting pits and into more fulfilling roles. More experience gave me more opportunities,” she says.

He honors his wife, who pushed him to host the FTX podcast. Looking for opportunities other than support, he created a research paper called “FTX Digest”, which external parties can contribute to.

“It gave me some time to come up with more content-type initiatives within the company, and then I said I wanted to do a podcast,” he says. “I have to do a podcast. At that time the energy of the company was that if people want to do things, try it, let's see what happens. It paid off in the end and is probably one of the most satisfying parts of my career so far. “

In the year

“Once Armani invited me to get a backpack, I started changing my schedule. By May 2022, I would be doing 90%–95% backpacking stuff. I was still running the FTX Podcast, which was my last responsibility, and I was doing that until FTX collapsed.

“Of course, after the fall, everything went absolutely horribly wrong.”

Mad Lads is part of the “Triple Threat” line of products under the Backpack umbrella by Beaver and co-founder Ferrante.

Currently the most unique in crypto history, the company owns Backpack Wallet, Mad Lads NFT Collection and wallet exchange. It's a win-win for Lads holders, who are surprisingly sprinkled in, and Lads holders, who have an enthusiastic user base to test the Backpack Company's products as well as provide feedback and distribution.

“They've all evolved naturally and become very helpful. Each one covers a different and very important sector of crypto. Lads is a distribution. Lads is this megaphone that can take anything that's happening and throw it out into the world,” says Iver.

“Backpack Wallet covers the use of crypto on-chain, then the exchange covers the use of crypto off-chain. So, all three cover most of the bandwidth of what you do in the crypto world anyway. Being able to focus on all three is great. It's obviously a lot of work but they all complement each other and work well together.

The backpack team now calls Japan home because of the goal of not only the global exchange of energy, but also being legally compliant in as many jurisdictions as possible.

Yever describes the sequence of the three product pillars and how launching three products at once happened naturally rather than as an initial intention.

“The order was Wallet, Mad Lads, then The Exchange. The wallet was first. At the very beginning, we were thinking of making this smart wallet, basically, that would make it harder for people to hack. That was the original idea, but we realized that if we sent proxy instructions we would have problems with Solana's transaction volume. Instead, we said, OK, maybe this won't work.

“The idea of ​​xNFTs came up. We're really excited about it because there's a lot of context to do everything in crypto, so if you can have a decentralized way for people, from one interface a la WeChat, we thought that would be really interesting. ”

Taking inspiration from Bitcoin and Satoshi

Yver recalls a conversation with the entrepreneur, in which Bitcoin and its creator Satoshi Nakamoto drew life into the Mad Lads collection, drawing him as inspiration to invest in the crowdfunding community.

“I think it was this conversation with Arminy that led to the first beta launch of the wallet and the awareness that got us into the NFT project. This sounds cheesy, but we were talking about Satoshi and Bitcoin, and it was this realization, the realization that the technology wasn't the only thing that allowed Bitcoin and crypto to get to where they are. Satoshi was not alone in solving the dual cost problem.

“Satoshi published that and went wild. These cypherpunks and libertarians saw that, and to them, it was incredibly interesting. They were part of the culture and they were the evangelists who went out into the world and spread the gospel. It was this intersection between the technology and then the cultural element, which were these early evangelists.

We realized that we had the technology part. We had a wallet, we had this whole protocol around decentralized applications that could live in a wallet. We had the community, but we didn't have the means to shape a group of people of the same culture to tell them.

Where does the name come from and the word “Fok It”.

Mad Lads has a distinct style not only in its art, but also in its social ethos, bound by many community slogans such as “Fok It”, “Lads On Top” and “WAO” or “We are one”. He said.

Yever says that the name Mad Lads is not because the community is actually angry, but because of the feeling: “I describe Mad Lads as a community of people who are crazy, thinking they can change the world.” The idea isn't mad as in rage – it's as mad as in passion. Just going over the top with this skill.

“The name came from the energy we felt from the community and how much energy and drive all these people had. How much they care about what they do and how much they care about the community. It gave everything a stronger sense of purpose and direction so having that name was a huge opener.”

Yever added that the “Fuck It” slogan is rooted in a carelessness about other people's opinions and somewhat rooted in Nike's famous “Just Do It” play.

“I think this session was brainstorming and I was talking about the ethics of Mad Lads and these people who are crazy enough to change the world. And think, what's the mindset that allows you to do that?”

“Imagination really is FUCK IT. Fuck it. Who cares what other people think? Who cares about limits? Who cares about these constructions? I'm just going to go ahead and fake it and do it.

“It was almost like a spin on the Just Do It mantra. It was a great hit, and really resonated with the community. He has gone too far from us. We put it out there, we made some shirts, but it was really people who took the label and put it out into the world.

Decentralized market vehicle

So far, the lads have shown how valuable a community is in crypto, where distribution and trading can be difficult to break through in an overly noisy and fast-paced environment.

While Solana has emerged as the third major ecosystem behind Bitcoin and Ethereum this cycle, Lads owners have benefited from several airdrops, including Wormhole. Working as a somewhat decentralized transaction vehicle, the projects on Solana and Ethereum have been involved with the community of lads, who know that they can access the part of crypto that is not always easy to access – distribution.

“The beautiful thing is that it's completely taken on a life of its own, and the Lads are now very much their own independent thing. It's just a group of people who really want to be part of each other's community. They love the art, which is the biggest goal for us,” says Iver.

“They're very active in social issues, and they've created a strong community until projects come directly to them. For projects wondering how to win in the Solana ecosystem, assigning Mad Lads is the default. The Mad Lads are recognized for their work over and over again. They are very active, and it makes them more active. It's actually a positive self-reflexive cycle, basically.

Even though the leads were showered with airdrops, Iver and his team chanted from the start, “No utility, this is carpet, send it to zero.” It was a tongue-in-cheek mantra, but after years of unfulfilled promises and high hopes from the last wave of NFT projects, it was a bold sentiment and contrary to what NFT holders are used to.

“If it's all about utility and expectations, it's going to work for a certain type of person. We want to self-select for people who really want to be there. They loved art, they loved other people in the community. Obviously, the secondary effects of projects going in and giving things to them are also amazing.

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“When the lads started getting these big drops, like Wormhole and others, a lot of people bought them because they thought it was all about the drops, but they just checked out. It's come back to this core group of people for community and art, which we love to see. It's amazing.”

A rapid-fire Q&A with NFT collector Tristan Iver

Where do you see Leeds and the bag in three years?

“I think I'd be disappointed if Backpack wasn't a level one exchange and a level one wallet, and if Mad Labs wasn't two to three of the best collections in the world at that point.”

What do you say to someone who says NFTs are dead, because there's a fair bit of sentiment on the timeline right now?

I think what I would say to that is just to see the strength of these communities in terms of social issues and how much stronger they are than most of the token projects in the space. It's hard to say they're dead because I think that's what matters as long as those communities continue to be that active, and that's what can bring equity back over time.

Favorite NFT in your wallet?

“I think I have a similar classic between my PFP and the skull, which I also love from the Mad Lads collection.”

Favorite NFT artist? You don't necessarily need to own their work.

“I think Yann Penno did the Mad Lads collection. He is absolutely fantastic. He really has a wide scope of work. In the NFT stuff you only see here in crypto, but outside of that he's very talented.

Favorite 1-in-1 art class?

“I have a good friend, Lucas Lyon. He asked, ‘What are we?' A piece. He is a great artist, and I bought the first NFT that launched on Ethereum in 2020. I also printed it out, and have a portrait of it. It's amazing.”

What is your advice to other NFT founders?

“Just because there is no shortcut. There are absolutely no shortcuts. You just need to take your time. During this time you must create incredibly high quality art, and spend endless hours nurturing the community.

What advice would you give someone on how to survive crypto in the long run?

“Don't use incentives. And survival, basically survival. I think you will be fine as long as you live.”

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Greg Oxford

Greg Oakford is Head of Development and Partnerships at Upside DAO, Australia's leading crypto and web3 collaboration hub and investment fund. He is an avid NFT collector and founder of NFT Fest Australia. Prior to crypto, Greg was a marketing and sponsorship specialist in the sports industry working on professional events.

Follow the author @GregOakford