It has been 354 days since we dropped the “WTF are xNFTs?” blog and a lot has changed since then. xNewsletter keeps you informed on all Backpack news, project updates and xNFT builders.

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Table of Contents

1. Backpack Supports Solana’s NFT Showdown

2. VB (Virtual Backpack) Teaser

3. Y-Axis Pod Debuts w/ Tristan & Armani

4. Token-22 Token Support Implemented

5. BUILDERZ LABS Releases Backpack Tooling

6. SolanaMonkeyBusiness Upgrades Collection to xNFTs

7. Builders Flock To Release xNFTs dApps

Backpack Supports Solana’s NFT Showdown

The Solana Foundation is hosting a one-of-a-kind NFT pitch competition focusing on brands that create real world products in industries like fashion, entertainment, gaming and creator agencies.

Winners will be selected based on their business plans, product innovation, business acumen, creative brand development and innovative use of Solana tool. There will be just 10 finalists selected for an IRL pitch directly to the the judges panel.

The prize pool is nothing to shake a stick at. Builders and artists can go their whole career without coming across an opportunity like the NFT Showdown.

Entries must be submitted by midnight on June 9th, this Friday.

VB (Virtual Backpack) Teaser Breaks Twitter

The tech world was abuzz after Apple’s demonstration of the new “Apple Vision Pro” virtual reality headset and Backpack was quick to join in the fun with this virtual xNFT mashup.

Apple created a category of their own when they released the Apple Computer 1 in 1976 - they challenged the status quo and aimed to change the way we view technology. Forty years later they are still the leader in cutting edge technologies.

Backpack has embarked on a similar journey with xNFTs. Tokenized applications are an entirely new concept for web3 developers to explore.

Y-Axis Pod Debuts w/ Tristan Yver & Armani Ferrante

Backpack cofounder Tristan Yver launched his new podcast called Y-Axis with Armani Ferrante as the first guest. The duo have been working together on Backpack since early 2022 and they dive into the journey that led Armani to building xNFT technology.

“You can tokenize code.”

View the full length episode on YouTube.

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Token-22 Support Shipped In Record Time

Mad Lads holders began receiving $BERN airdrops but did not have the ability to see them and devs did something.

Backpack OGs are no strangers to the team’s expedient shipping but even this one was notably fast. Community feedback loops have defined Backpack’s development path since the very beginning and rapid token-22 implementation is a byproduct of that.

When Twitter speaks, Backpack listens.

BUILDERZ LABS Boosts Solana xNFT Developers

BUILDERZ dropped a love bomb on the Solana developer ecosystem with their tool Scaffold, a platform for anyone to kickstart xNFT development. While not an xNFT itself it is a wonderful tool for Solana builders who are looking to explore building on Backpack.

Access Scaffold on GitHub.

SolanaMonkeyBusiness Upgrades Collection to xNFTs, Teases Gen3 On Backpack

Remember when we talked about SMB’s newsletter? The only way you can access it is by moving your SMB to Backpack.

All SMB NFTs have been upgraded into xNFTs and their first use is as a portal to view SMB updates, Townhall recaps, alpha drops, platform statistics and updates on the grant program in their latest Banana Split newsletter.

Builders Flock To Release xNFTs

Dozens of notable builders have already dropped their xNFT dApps and many more are working on the effort. The number of approved dApps in the xNFT Library has doubled since the beginning of April.

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Mad Missions

• Mad Missions, created by spacemandev, is a blockchain game built on Backpack. Players can connect their Lads, create a character and are immediately thrust into an alien world.

Start your journey here.

Ocean Explorers

• Ocean Explorers is an on-chain strategy game that launched it’s NFT mint inside of a Backpack xNFT. Explorers traverse the vast seas of Azurite in pursuit of eXP and doubloons, shaping this newfound world through various expeditions.

Doge Capital

• Doge Capital, in collaboration with Frakt, SharkyFi and Citrus, launched “Fetch” an all-in-one dashboard for managing loans and fine-tuning your DeFi portfolio.

PsyFi

• PysFi provides transparent decentralized option vaults. Users can lend against their crypto positions along with a host of other DeFi tools.

  

Bonfida | Solana Name Service

• Bonfida continues their mission to provide web3 users with a tangible digital identity by bringing their suite of tools to Backpack users.

MadScape

• MadScape has not released their xNFT yet but they deserve a spot on the list. Tristan Yver, Backpack and Mad Lads cofounder, is a self confessed recovering Runescape fanatic and MadScape looks like it might be the first Backpack game to drag him back in.

SolanaMonkeyBusiness

• SMB hasn’t released a dedicated xNFT dApp (yet) however they have started pushing their newsletter notifications via Backpack.

  
  Read more about SMB’s newsletter in our inaugural edition of Mad News.

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Over the coming months, we’ll be going all in on xNFTs, building out a blooming ecosystem of apps, protocols, developer tools, and JPEGs (lots of JPEGs) that push forward Web3 through our new company, Coral. In many ways, this is the natural evolution of the Anchor framework, as we grow the team and expand from the smart contract layer to go full stack and multi-chain. This means reinvesting into tools we all love and use like Anchor, but it also means new experiments like xNFTs. It’ll be a wild ride, with tons of failure (and hopefully some success), and we’re excited to share with you every step of the journey—blue balls and all.

Phase 0: Operation Dora

For the first phase of the xNFT experiment, we’re starting with wallets. Today, they’re the gatekeepers of blockchain ecosystems. They’re permissioned, closed, and closer to Web2 than they are to Web3. If you want to build a new protocol, you need to lobby for integration, but there are so many protocols on so many blockchains that no one can expect to be included. It’s a product management nightmare, and it’s holding back innovation. Wallets are more like blackberries than they are like iPhones—token specific asset management tools—but imagine a wallet that used all of your crypto assets. Imagine if you could manage your Mango margin accounts, stake your DeGods, or view your Magic Eden listings not in a web view, but natively in a single interface. Imagine if you wanted to create your own token protocol with your own twist without having to convince everyone to implement it. xNFTs are the standard breaking standard making all of this possible. And for the first chapter in this story, we’re building not a wallet, but something different, an xNFT operating system we call Backpack.

Like a wallet, Backpack manages your private keys and connects to apps. But unlike anything else, it’s asset and protocol agnostic. Everything in the wallet is an xNFT. This is a big deal. Most wallets only show your tokens. Some don’t even show your precious JPEGs. Backpack, however, is a home for everything. It’s an open, programmable system built for Web3. And like any other application operating system, has a set of developer frameworks and APIs associated with it, allowing anyone to build their own xNFT apps for any protocol on any blockchain—without permission.

Private Developer Alpha

Today, we’re opening up Backpack and the xNFT developer framework to a small group of developers to build the first batch of xNFTs. There will be glass, lots of glass, as we build out the tooling together with motivating apps. To start, there’s a couple projects we’re excited to see: listing on Magic Eden, viewing Aurory DNA, staking Degods, borrow-lending on Mango, bridging through Wormhole, using vaults like Psyoptions, and developing with Anchor—all inside Backpack.

This is a lot, and believe it or not, this is just the beginning. There’s a lot more on our roadmap that we can’t wait to share. We’re nurturing a vibrant ecosystem of xNFTs, so if you’re building in crypto, reach out. Let’s build together.

WAO.

So WTF are xNFTs?

Well, they’re just apps, but the story doesn’t end here. On the one hand, they’re just apps, but on the other hand, they’re so much more.

Soon.

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