Forem: 100 Days of Solana

How Web3 Tokens Get Their Value

Vincent Jande — Thu, 07 May 2026 18:03:23 +0000

Someone in the 100 Days of Solana community asked a question last week that needs to be addressed: "What gives SOL its value?"

You have been using SOL in every challenge. You airdropped it, checked your balance, and you are about to start sending it in Arc 3. But where does the value actually come from? Is it just numbers on a screen?

I understand why people think that. Let’s break it down.

Liquidity: Where price comes from

The first thing to understand is that for a token to have purchasing power, there needs to be liquidity. This means there are people or pools willing to trade real assets, such as fiat or stablecoins, for that token. That liquidity is what allows a market price to exist.

Think of it like converting currencies at an airport. You hand over dollars, and you get euros. The value isn't created in that moment; it is a transfer of value from one form to another. In Web3, liquidity is the bridge that connects digital assets to the broader economy.

Different tokens, different sources of value

Not all tokens work the same way. Understanding the types helps you see where the value sits.

Native Tokens: SOL is required to pay transaction fees, stake with validators, and interact with applications. As usage of the network grows, the demand for these specific functions can increase the demand for SOL.
Stablecoins: These are often pegged to a currency like the US dollar. They maintain this peg through reserves and market mechanics. Issuers like Circle hold cash and bonds so you can redeem USDC for dollars.
Utility Tokens: These provide access to specific services, such as in-game items or decentralized file hosting. The token has value because the service it unlocks is useful to someone.
Governance Tokens: These provide voting power. Holding governance tokens for a protocol allows participation in decisions about fees, features, or treasury management.
Meme Tokens: These often derive value from community and attention. While they may begin as jokes, they can build large social networks.

The Solana-Specific Engine

Beyond general categories, Solana has unique technical mechanics that influence its economy:

The Cost of State (Rent) On Solana, storage is not free. Every time you create an account or deploy a program, you must deposit a minimum amount of SOL to make that account Rent Exempt. This SOL is held in the account to keep it active. While it isn't permanently removed, it is temporarily locked, which can reduce circulating liquidity as the ecosystem grows.
The Burn Mechanism Solana has a built-in "fee burn" where 50% of every base transaction fee is permanently destroyed. However, Solana also has inflation (new SOL issued to validators to secure the network). The net effect on supply depends on how much network activity (burn) occurs versus the rate of new issuance.
Efficiency via Proof of History (PoH) Solana’s design enables fast, low-cost transactions (settling in roughly 400ms). This can make certain applications, like high frequency DeFi or real time payments, more efficient. This efficiency increases the usefulness of the network, which in turn supports the value of its native token.

Liquidity pools: How tokens stay tradeable

In Web3, we often use liquidity pools instead of traditional order books. A liquidity pool is a smart contract holding two tokens, such as SOL and USDC. Prices are set automatically using mathematical formulas rather than matching individual buyers and sellers like a traditional exchange.

People who deposit tokens into these pools are called liquidity providers. They put in a balanced value of both tokens and earn a portion of the trading fees. This is how decentralized exchanges like Raydium or Orca function. When more people buy SOL from the pool, it becomes scarcer in that pool, and the price rises automatically.

Is it real?

Value in Web3 comes from the same place all value comes from: utility and demand.

SOL is useful because the network processes thousands of transactions per second for very low costs. USDC is useful because it allows for digital dollar movement globally. DeFi protocols are useful because they provide financial tools without traditional intermediaries.

The infrastructure is different from traditional finance, but the principles are the same. Value frequently follows utility.

What this means for you

You have been working with DevNet SOL, which has no monetary value. However, the mechanics are identical to Mainnet. The RPC calls, the wallet interactions, and the transaction flows are all the same.

In Arc 3, you start sending transactions and moving "simulated value." Understanding how that value flows, even on a test network, makes you a better builder. You are practicing the exact same movements you will eventually perform on Mainnet. Whether you end up creating a payment system, a DeFi protocol, or something entirely new, this technical foundation is where it starts.

Keep building. See you on Discord.

100 Days of Solana is a free daily coding challenge. If you have not joined yet, start here: https://mlh.link/solana-100

AMA with Solana's Brianna Migliaccio

Matthew Revell — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:44:10 +0000

If you're new to Solana—or Web3 and blockchain more broadly—you almost certainly have questions.

That’s expected.

Web3 works under different assumptions to traditional web and mobile development.

Plus, there’s a whole new set of concepts and terminology to get familiar with.

So let’s make that easier.

Join us live

📺 https://twitch.tv/mlh

🗓 Wednesday, April 29

🕛 12:00 Eastern / 17:00 UK / 21:30 India

Come ready with your questions.

And if you can’t make it, we’ll share the highlights here on DEV.

Want to learn more about Solana? Join the 100 Days of Solana challenge >

Why Web3 Exists and Why Solana Matters

Vincent Jande — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:19:40 +0000

You trust middlemen every single day. You probably don't even think about it.

Your bank holds your money. Instagram holds your followers. Spotify holds your playlists. Google holds your emails. Every service you use, someone else is in control. They control access to your data and assets within their systems and policies.

In our current digital landscape, our "ownership" is essentially a managed service. Whether it's a financial institution or a social media platform, your access depends on the stability and policies of the provider. Web3 is the movement to change this, to build an internet where you actually own your digital assets and data.

To make this vision a reality, we need a foundation that doesn't rely on a central boss. This is precisely what blockchain was designed to provide.

So what is a blockchain?

Imagine a notebook that thousands of people have a copy of. Every time someone writes something in it, every copy is updated simultaneously, provided the network agrees the entry meets specific conditions. You can't rip out a page, change what was already written, or claim ownership over the whole thing.

That's the core idea of a blockchain. It is a shared record that functions without a central boss. Once information is recorded, it remains there permanently because the system is designed to prevent anyone from tampering with the history. Instead of trusting a single company to keep the records straight, the system relies on math and a network of computers reaching a consensus.

While this describes the initial "open and ownerless" concept, the technology has evolved to allow for managed variations like private, hybrid, or consortium blockchains, where specific entities or pre-selected groups control the records rather than the general public.

Why does this matter?

It shifts how we handle control and trust in our daily lives.

Moving value without traditional hurdles. Usually, sending money abroad involves a chain of banks. It can take days, involves various fees, and a single institution can decide to halt the transaction. Blockchain allows for more direct transfers that often settle much faster, bypassing many of the usual middlemen.

Agreements governed by code. Think about hiring a freelancer. Rather than relying solely on a handshake or expensive legal backing, you could use a smart contract. The agreement is programmed: when the work is verified, the payment is released automatically. This reduces the need to chase invoices or worry about payment delays.

Secure records of ownership. Most important documents, like house deeds, are stored in centralized offices. If those records are lost, damaged, or altered by error, proving what you own becomes a nightmare. Recording ownership on a blockchain provides a decentralized backup, meaning there is no single point of failure that can wipe out your proof of property.

These aren't just ideas for the future; the infrastructure to support these shifts is being built and used right now.

If it's so great, why hasn't it taken over?

To be honest, the early versions were often slow and expensive.

Bitcoin, the first major implementation, can handle roughly 7 transactions per second. Compare that to Visa, which processes around 65,000. While Bitcoin was a massive breakthrough in proving the concept of decentralized trust, it wasn't originally designed for high-speed, high-volume traffic.

Ethereum expanded the horizon by making the technology programmable. It allowed people to build applications and write smart contracts, but it faced similar growing pains. During busy periods, the network can get congested, causing transaction fees to spike sometimes to $50 or more. High costs like that make it difficult to use for everyday things like buying coffee or paying a small invoice.

For a while, these limitations meant the tech was mostly used for speculation. People traded tokens back and forth, not necessarily because the technology lacked potential, but because the underlying infrastructure was still catching up to the demand.

Where Solana comes in

Solana was built to address these specific bottlenecks.

While many earlier blockchains struggled with low throughput, Solana was engineered to handle thousands of transactions per second. This shift makes the technology much more practical for daily use. Instead of paying dollars in fees and waiting minutes for a confirmation, transactions on Solana typically cost fractions of a cent and finalize in under a second.

This performance is what allows for real-world applications beyond just trading. It opens the door for:

Global payment systems that rival traditional speeds.
Social platforms and games where every interaction doesn't require a massive fee.
Supply chain tracking that needs to record thousands of data points in real-time.

Solana isn't the only high-speed network available, but it has become one of the most battle-tested. With a large developer ecosystem and a growing list of products running in production, it represents a move away from theoretical potential toward actual, scalable utility.

Why you should care right now

If you are a developer, blockchain isn't a "future" skill you can indefinitely postpone. Companies are hiring for it, products are shipping on it, and those who understand the architecture now have a distinct advantage.

The best part? If you know JavaScript, you already have a solid foundation. Building on Solana doesn't mean starting from scratch or throwing away your existing knowledge. Many of the core concepts map directly to the logic and systems you already understand.

Start building

100 Days of Solana is a free, daily coding challenge designed to take you from zero blockchain experience to building functional applications.

The Format: One challenge per day.
The Goal: No prerequisites, just show up and build.
The Progress: Last week, participants set up their first wallets, funding them with test SOL, and interacting with the network. This week, participants will learn how to read the blockchain. By the end of the 100 days, you won't just have theoretical knowledge; you'll have a portfolio of real projects that demonstrate exactly what you can do.

Join 100 Days of Solana

Web3 Terminology Mapped to What You Already Know

Matthew Revell — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:10:05 +0000

Web3 can seem intimidating at first. And a lot of that is to do with terminology.

But once you make the connection between what you already know from web and mobile dev, for example, everything becomes a little clearer.

Here are some common Web3 terms and concepts translated into their Web2 equivalents to help you make the move.

100 Days of Solana

Want to learn Web3? Join 100 Days of Solana for free to go from curiosity to building!

Web3 Fundamentals

Let's start with the basics.

Why is it called Web3?

The idea is that this is third phase of the web.

Web 1 was the original, read-only world wide web of the 90s.
Web 2 made things two-way, so the web became participatory.
Web 3 uses blockchain technologies to make you the owner of your data, rather than the companies running websites and apps you use.

It can take a while to realize why that's important and what it means. Seeing it in action makes all the difference.

Web3 Core Pillars

To understand how this actually works, you only need to know three things:

The Blockchain: A public ledger (think of it like a very distributed database) that lives on thousands of computers at once. It’s "permissionless", meaning no one can block you from using it.
The Wallet: Your digital identity. Instead of an email and password, you use a private key stored in your wallet to prove you own your assets.
Smart Contracts: Pieces of code that live on the blockchain. They execute automatically when certain conditions are met.

But there are plenty more ideas and phrases that you'll need to get used to in order to feel fully comfortable in the Web3 world.

Making Sense of the Rest

Now that you understand the three core pieces — blockchain, wallet, and smart contracts — everything else in Web3 is really just combinations of those ideas.

The terminology can still feel unfamiliar, though. So let’s map the most common terms to things you already use as a developer.

Identity: Wallets Replace Accounts

You already know that in Web2:

users sign up
you store their credentials
you authenticate requests

In Web3, your wallet replaces all of that.

Web3	How to think about it
Wallet	Your account (but you control it, not a platform)
Public Key	Your user ID or username
Private Key	Your cryptographic identity — used to prove ownership and sign actions
Signing	Logging in / proving who you are

The key difference is simple but important:

Instead of logging in to a server, you prove who you are by signing requests with your private key.

Data: The Blockchain Is the Database

You already understand databases, APIs, and writes.

The blockchain is just a very different kind of database.

Web3	How to think about it
Blockchain	A shared, append-only database
Transaction	A write operation
Node	A server running the database
Gas / Fees	Paying for compute or writes, just like paying for API calls or cloud compute

What changes here isn’t what you’re doing but, instead, the constraints:

writes are public
writes are permanent
writes cost money

That can make you think much more carefully about what you store and when.

Logic: Smart Contracts Are Your Backend

You already write backend code that:

processes requests
enforces rules
updates data

Smart contracts do the same thing.

Web3	How to think about it
Smart Contract	Backend logic
Program (on Solana)	A deployed service
Calling a contract	Making an API request

The important shift:

You don’t control the runtime once it’s deployed.

Value: Ownership Is Built In

In Web2, ownership is just a database entry you or someone else controls.

In Web3, it’s enforced by the system itself.

Web3	How to think about it
Token	Money or API credits that aren’t tied to a single service (like Stripe balance, but portable and user-owned)
NFT	Like owning a domain name, it's a unique asset with verifiable ownership (and not just a picture of an ape)
Wallet balance	Your bank balance but without a bank controlling it

The difference:

In Web2, ownership is just a row in someone's database. In Web3, it’s enforced by the network and you can’t change it manually.

Apps: Same Shape, Different Backend

At a high level, Web3 apps still look familiar.

Web3	How to think about it
dApp	A web app
RPC endpoint	Your backend API
Explorer	A read-only database viewer
Mainnet / Devnet	Production / staging

The frontend is still yours.

The backend is now a public network.

What Actually Changes

If this all feels surprisingly familiar, that’s the point.

Much of Web3 isn't a completely new model, instead it's a new way of thinking about things you already know well. The core differences are:

You control identity (wallets instead of accounts)
You pay for writes (like calls to a paid API)
You deploy immutable logic (contracts instead of editable app code)
You rely on shared infrastructure (networks instead of owned backends)

That’s it.

The Only Way This Really Clicks

Reading helps. But it won’t fully land until you try it.

The moment you:

generate a keypair
send a transaction
see it appear on-chain

…all of this terminology stops feeling abstract.

And we're here to help with that. 100 Days of Solana is a hands-on daily coding challenge that takes you from no Web3 experience to able to build with Solana. Join free!

100 Daily Challenges to Learn Web3 and Solana

Matthew Revell — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:14:12 +0000

Web3 is different. But it doesn't have to be hard.

Most of what you do in a Web3 ecosystem, like Solana, maps directly to things you already understand from building web and mobile apps. You just need to learn some new terminology and assumptions first.

That's why we're launching 100 Days of Solana! It's a free, daily programming challenge that will take you from Web3 curiosity to creating your own projects with Solana.

TL;DR

Here's the short version of everything you need to know:

Start date: April 20th but you can join any time.
What you’ll learn: How Solana works in practice, including transactions, accounts, programs, and how to build real apps on top.
How it works: One focused challenge per day (~30–60 mins), each building on the last.

One Theme Each Week

We’ve structured 100 Days of Solana into Arcs (weekly themes) and Epochs (bigger milestones).

Each Arc runs Monday to Sunday and focuses on one topic, starting with Identity and Your First Wallet.

If you're busy one week, you can cover just the basics on Monday and Tuesday. But to make the most of the event, it’s worth aiming for all seven days.

Big Stories

Each set of Arcs builds into a larger milestone that we’re calling Epochs.

Those Epochs take you from understanding how data works on Solana to building and shipping your own applications:

Reading and Writing Data
Owning and Moving Data
Building Programs, Making Contracts
Shipping and Exploring

By the end, you'll have learned what you can build with Solana, why you'd choose Solana, and how to put all the pieces together.

A Community

You won’t be doing this alone.

When you register, you’ll join the 100 Days of Solana Discord, where you can:

Ask questions and get help from the event team
Share your progress
Connect with other developers working through the same challenges

We’ll also run live AMAs, publish blog posts here on DEV, and more.

There’ll be opportunities to win prizes, get your work showcased, and even take part in MLH’s Solana Fellowship.

Why Solana?

We’re using Solana for this program because it works well for learning by building.

Transactions are fast and inexpensive, so you can try things out, make mistakes, and see what happens without waiting around or worrying about cost.

It’s also one of the platforms we see used most often at MLH hackathons. Developers pick it because they can actually build and ship something in a short amount of time.

That makes it a good place to go from “I kind of get this” to actually putting something together yourself.