Solana-based MadLads NFT Mint Pushes Through After Delay

The MadLads NFT public mint, initially set for launch on 4/20, was been postponed for over a day, due to a groundswell of interest in the project. It later launched after setting up a honeypot trap for bots.

The surge in demand for the MadLads NFT collection was reportedly caused by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. However, the exact nature of the attack is yet to be confirmed, whether it was intentional or was caused by an external threat actor trying to hijack or sabotage the project.

A DDoS attack occurs when multiple systems flood a targeted server, system, or network with a massive volume of traffic, overwhelming its resources and causing it to become slow or unresponsive. In the MadLads situation, the billions of requests routed through the crypto wallet Backpack exceeded the platform’s capacity, effectively leading to a DDoS attack.

The excessive traffic not only affected the Backpack wallet but also impacted other aspects of the Solana ecosystem, such as knocking out two RPC nodes (access points to the Solana blockchain) and the user interface on Cloudflare, a service that helps prevent DDoS attacks.

As a result, MadLads NFT co-creators Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver announced the delay, effectively postponing the public mint by 24 hours or so, in order to address the issue and ensure the infrastructure could handle the influx of users seeking to mint the MadLads NFTs.

The overwhelming demand for the MadLads NFTs also impacted other aspects of the Solana ecosystem. The heavy traffic managed to knock out two RPC nodes which serve as access points to the Solana blockchain, as well as the interface for Cloudflare, a routing platform that helps prevent DDoS attacks. The demand has likely driven a surge in signups for Blue Coral’s Backpack wallet app, which is the only wallet supporting the MadLads collection.

The MadLads collection, a project closely associated with the Solana duo, has sparked immense interest, making it one of the hottest NFT mints in Solana’s recent history. According to Ferrante, billions of requests routed through the crypto wallet Backpack, which is also a product of Ferrante and Yver’s startup, Blue Coral Inc., far exceeded the platform’s capabilities, leading to the DDoS attack.

MadLads represents a new kind of NFT called xNFTs, which are more than just JPEG images on a blockchain. xNFTs also represent tokenized code that signifies ownership rights over its execution. The MadLads collection is intended to be the first xNFT.

During a Twitter Spaces conversation with approximately 9,500 listeners, Ferrante explained the magnitude of the situation:

“[the demand was] orders of magnitude more insane than anything we’ve dealt with up until this point.”

He recounted a series of internet outages that initially forced a one-hour delay and ultimately led to the 24-hour postponement. The excitement within the Solana community led to some NFT traders seeking any possible advantage to gain access to the MadLads collection.

Some individuals even followed a Substack post’s erroneous advice, suggesting that purchasing custom RPC nodes from Solana developer project Helius would increase their chances of minting a MadLads NFT. This misinformation prompted Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz to claridfy in the Helius Discord server that the custom RPC nodes would not significantly improve one’s chances of minting a MadLads NFT.

Since the delay, the MadLads NFT collection successfully went through with its mint.

VICTORY.

YOU HAVE FREED THE MAD LADS!

SHOW US YOUR UNRUGGED MAD LADS 👇 pic.twitter.com/47YTfWnIAF

— Mad Lads (@MadLadsNFT) April 22, 2023

While the mint went through, the MadLad team’s decision to place a honeypot trap to lure in bots who wanted to automate mints was controversial in its methods. While the team said that all funds have been returned, some users report that their funds in $SOL still haven’t been given back.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.