Inside #100DaysofSolana: A Guided Path into Web3

Just over a month ago, we kicked off #100DaysofSolana, a program designed to walk hackers from “I’ve heard of blockchain” to “I built something on it.” As an introduction to Solana, we spent Epoch 1 working through the basics and giving all of our participants the chance to get comfortable with concepts that, for most developers, have always lived behind a wall of jargon.

As we get ready for Epoch 2, we invite you to learn about the opportunity and consider joining us: The beauty of #100DaysofSolana is that you can do just that. Start today. Walk away in another 70 days with a new set of skills, a new understanding of web3, and an understanding of how to build on Solana’s blockchain.

What is Solana?

Solana is a blockchain platform – part of the broader web3 ecosystem that also includes Bitcoin and Ethereum. (If you’re not familiar, a quick explanation on web3 can be found here, and you can explore more in DEV’s web3 tag. And here’s a blockchain explanation too.)

What makes Solana different is speed and cost. Blockchain platforms have struggled with both; at one point, Bitcoin’s annual electricity consumption was higher than the country of Switzerland. Solana was built to make everyday transactions practical rather than purely theoretical – which is what makes it a useful place to actually build.

The platform also supports small programs that run on-chain when a transaction calls for them. They are the building blocks for some of the most interesting work happening on the chain.

Why #100DaysofSolana Right Now?

Web3 is still in its youth as a concept and a practice. And we often get the question from next gen developers who are still learning, “How can I learn more?” The honest answer is that the path to learning in this one case is a bit more challenging than most: A lot of the available material – including Solana’s own documentation – is written for people who already understand it, and the existing community has a vernacular all its own, where familiar words can mean unfamiliar things. A developer who is curious about web3 can spend a long time bouncing off resources that assume they already “get it” to a certain extent.

We wanted to close that gap and #100DaysofSolana was developed to help do just that.

The program assumes a participant already knows the world of web and mobile development, and can bridge from there into Solana. For instance, we started off our program by aligning the idea of Solana with the idea of a global database. And then we worked through accessing and reading data from it as you would learn how to find and read data in a database you are familiar with navigating.

Solana is exactly the right partner for this kind of program.

• Compared with earlier blockchains, it is faster and more affordable to use, which makes it practical for real applications rather than purely theoretical ones.
• It hosts a meaningful share of stablecoins – digital currencies pegged to traditional ones – and the things people are building on it span payments, digital assets, loyalty and incentive systems, and ownership models with no obvious Web2 parallel.
• The platform is still early enough that developers working with it now have a real chance of being part of figuring out what works.

And 100 days, rather than a weekend or a month, is deliberate. Learning Solana isn’t just learning a new library…it is a different mental model so you need more than a few days to really wrap your mind around it and let it sink in. Smart contracts, on-chain data, token economics, and digital assets don’t map cleanly onto anything most developers have built before, so that shift takes time. The career math lines up too: as AI reshapes entry-level software work, picking up a specialization is one of the most useful things an early-career developer can do, and a hundred days of hands-on Solana experience is something concrete to point to.

What #100DaysofSolana Looks Like for Participants

We built #100DaysofSolana with our participants in mind, and the belief that a little bit every day goes a long way to learning new skills. Every week follows a pattern that’s designed to be flexible (with even more flexibility on the weekend because we know you need rest).

• Monday – Try: A new topic gets introduced.
• Tuesday – Build: Participants put hands on the keyboard and put the idea into practice.
• Thursday – Stretch: A deeper challenge that pushes the week’s concept further.
• Saturday – Document: Participants write about what they’ve learned on DEV.
• Sunday – Amplify: Engage with other participants on DEV or social platforms and see what everyone else is learning and trying out.

The structure is built so no participant has to complete all 100 days perfectly to benefit. A developer who does just Try and Build in a given week still walks away with enough to understand the topic and move on. The Saturday and Sunday rhythm – write it down, share it – borrows from the way working developers actually build expertise: in public, with feedback.

We just finished Epoch 1 where we focused on the fundamentals: where Solana data lives, how to read it, and how to get oriented in the ecosystem. The goal was less about writing code and more about building familiarity – making the platform feel less like a black box and more like something a developer can actually navigate.

We’re just getting started with Epoch 2.

What’s Next for #100DaysofSolana in Epoch 2

Next we are going to move from reading to writing. Participants start manipulating data on Solana, beginning with concepts like token economics, incentives, and digital assets. The first challenge asks a deliberately concrete question: What would it look like to build a tokenized reward system on Solana, like a supermarket loyalty card? Or a Reddit-style karma system?

Those questions are also the door into the concept of NFTs, which, despite their reputation, aren’t limited to expensive jpegs of memes and monkeys. An NFT is a unique token recorded on a blockchain, usually with metadata that points to or describes a specific digital or real-world item, and the range of practical uses is much wider than the headlines suggest. This is the point in the program where the learning starts to feel applied. Participants are no longer just reading from the chain. They’re putting things on it.

Where #100DaysofSolana Goes Next

Epoch 3 moves into writing programs on Solana directly. This is where the foundational concepts from the first two epochs become tools, and participants start building software that runs on-chain.

Epoch 4 is shipping and exploring. The structure loosens, the projects get more independent, and participants get the chance to combine everything they’ve learned into something of their own design.

By the end of the 100 days, the goal is to have moved a hacker from curiosity about Web3 to confidence in actually building on it.

There is no shortage of opinions about Web3. But there is a need for patient, sequenced learning material that gets a working developer from the outside of the conversation to the inside without asking them to take anything on faith. #100DaysofSolana is built to be that material: a guided path, paced for someone learning from scratch, designed around the assumption that the best way to understand any new technology is to spend enough time with it to form an actual opinion.

Hackers can follow along, join in late, or come back at any epoch. The program is built to accommodate all of those. More information, and signup, is available at https://mlh.link/solana-100. You can also explore our DEV content for the program here: https://dev.to/100daysofsolana

FAQ

Do I need to know anything about Solana or Web3 to join 100 Days of Solana?
No. The program is built for developers who already know web or mobile development but have never worked on a blockchain. Epoch 1 covers the fundamentals from scratch – what Solana is, where its data lives, and how to read from it.

Can I join now that the program is already underway?
Yes. The weekly structure is designed to accommodate people joining late, taking breaks, or moving at their own pace. A developer who picks it up partway through can still go back and work through earlier epoch material on their own time.

How much time does 100 Days of Solana take per week?
The week has five themed days (Try, Build, Stretch, Document, Amplify), but no participant is expected to do all five every week. Completing just Try and Build is enough to walk away with the week's concept and move on to the next one.

What do I need to participate?
A computer, a code editor, and a Solana wallet for the on-chain challenges. The program guides participants through wallet setup as part of Epoch 1.

Is 100 Days of Solana free?

Yes.

Do I need to buy SOL to participate?
No, you don’t need to buy SOL. Just like Web2 development, Solana gives you the equivalent of a dev environment where you can practice. It’s called devnet and you can request free devnet SOL from a system called the faucet.

Why Solana, and not Ethereum or Bitcoin?
Solana was built to be faster and cheaper to operate than earlier blockchains, which makes it practical for everyday transactions rather than purely theoretical ones. The program is specifically Solana-focused, but most of the underlying concepts – smart contracts, on-chain data, token economics – apply broadly across Web3.

What happens after the 100 days?
Epoch 4 is shipping and exploring – the structure loosens and participants are given room to combine what they've learned into independent projects. The work and writing produced during the program become portfolio pieces showing real, hands-on Solana experience.