Solana Blockchain Developer Bootcamp with Rust + JavaScript

This post distills key insights from my study of "Solana Blockchain Developer Bootcamp with Rust + JavaScript " by Arjun.

View Course On Udemy


Applications of Solana

  • Money Transfer: Cheaper and faster

    • Voting: Transparent and secure

    RealState: Tokenization of properties

    Lending and Borrowing: DeFi

    Healthcare: Medical records can be stored in a secure way

    Gambling: Fair and transparent

    Supply Chain: Tracking of products

    NFTs and Gaming: Digital assets


What is Solana?

A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively. Solana is a high-performance blockchain that can scale to thousands of transactions per second, making it ideal for decentralized applications and crypto projects.

Solana Transactions can use "programs" written in Rust, a systems programming language that is known for its speed and safety. Solana also supports JavaScript for building front-end applications that interact with the blockchain.

Programs replace the middlemen in complex transactions.

Ethereum also has smart contracts, but they are slow and expensive.

Solana is faster, cheaper, and easier to program than Ethereum.


Airdropping - Projects

Airdropping means generate SOL and send it directly to your own wallet.

Fake Solana currency can be used to test features without spending real money.

Assumed Knowledge Required: Node & JavaScript

Project Link: https://github.com/jorgermduarte/solana-airdrop


What is a Token?

A token is a digital asset that represents ownership of something.

Solana vs real-life tokens:

  • Solana
    • No Middle man needed
    • difficult to forge because of blockchain
    • easy and cheap to create
  • Real-life
    • Middle man needed
    • easy to forge
    • costs money to manufacture

Theory on NFTs and Metaplex Candy Machine

What's a non-fungible token(NFT)? It's a unique digital asset that can be bought and sold.

Soo whats the difference between tokens and NFTs? Tokens are fungible, meaning they can be exchanged for each other. NFTs are unique and can't be exchanged for each other.

Giving Picasso as an example, Each NFT is signed with Picasso's Solana wallet, making it unique.

In Solana, we can create, mint, and sell NFTs using Metaplex Candy Machine.

Metaplex is the NFT Standard for Solana.

Metaplex has already written programs that will help us create our own NFTs out of the box.

Metaplex allows an user to randomly mint NFTs.

Prerequisites: Some JS + command-line experience + Solana installed on your computer


What is Chainlink?

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely interact with real-world data.

Chainlink makes it possible for solana projects to interact with real-world high quality data.

How it works:

  • Node operator puts data + deposits money on Chainlink network
  • If bad-quality data, node operator loses deposit
  • If good-quality data, node operator earns more money.