SolstackAcademy
Enter Solstack

Solstack Academy

Solana, from first principles.

Learn Solana from what a blockchain is to writing programs: keys, accounts, tokens, transactions and PDAs, in order, with a tool to try each one.

32 lessons·4 levels·123 min total
Start with lesson 1 →
01BeginnerWhat a blockchain is, how Solana works, what it costs and how to hold a wallet safely.8 lessons02IntermediateThe account model and everything tokens are built out of.8 lessons03AdvancedWhat a transaction really is and how programs own state and enforce rules.8 lessons04BuilderThe code behind everything above: programs, clients, tests and pipelines.8 lessons
01

Beginner

What a blockchain is, how Solana works, what it costs and how to hold a wallet safely.

  1. 1What is a blockchain?A ledger that thousands of strangers keep identical copies of, that anyone can read, and that only changes when the rules say so. Here is the whole mechanism, from a hash to a finalized block.7 min
  2. 2What is a cryptocurrency?Money is a ledger entry. A cryptocurrency is a ledger entry that moves on a signature instead of an institution's say-so, with a supply set by code. What that changes, what it doesn't, and how to read a price page without being fooled.6 min
  3. 3What is Solana?A fast, cheap public blockchain, and the vocabulary you need before you touch it.3 min
  4. 4SOL, lamports and what a transaction costsThree different numbers hide behind every fee prompt: a fixed fee, an optional tip and a refundable deposit. Tell them apart and no wallet popup will surprise you again.3 min
  5. 5Wallets, keys and addressesA wallet is a keypair with a nice interface. Know what the key does and most of the scary parts stop being scary.3 min
  6. 6Reading a Solana explorerSolscan and Solana Explorer are windows onto the same ledger. Learn the four kinds of page and you can check anything anyone tells you, without trusting them.3 min
  7. 7Devnet: practising with free SOLDevnet is a real Solana cluster where the SOL is free. Everything you will ever do on mainnet can be rehearsed here first, with nothing at stake.3 min
  8. 8Scams, drainers and how to stay safeEvery drain ends the same way: a key you leaked or a signature you gave. Here is what you will be asked to sign, what it can do, and the habits that make it not matter.4 min
02

Intermediate

The account model and everything tokens are built out of.

  1. 1The account modelEverything on Solana is an account: your wallet, a token balance, a program, its state. Learn the five fields and the chain reads like a data structure.3 min
  2. 2SPL tokens: mints, token accounts and ATAsA token on Solana is two kinds of account and one program. Once you see the shapes, creating, sending and auditing tokens becomes mechanical.3 min
  3. 3Token metadata and where it livesThe Token program stores a supply and a decimal count. The name, symbol and logo live somewhere else, and where they live decides who can change them.3 min
  4. 4Authorities: mint, freeze and updateA handful of keys decide what can still happen to a token after launch. Knowing who holds each one is most of the trust check, and revoking them is one transaction.3 min
  5. 5Token-2022 extensionsToken-2022 is the Token program with optional behaviour bolted onto a mint or a token account, chosen once at creation. Here is what each extension does and what it means for the people holding the token.3 min
  6. 6Airdrops, multisends and holder snapshotsSending a token to a thousand wallets is a batching problem, a cost problem and a bookkeeping problem. Solve all three before you sign the first batch.3 min
  7. 7Staking and liquid stakingStaking is how SOL earns a yield and secures the network at the same time. It is also the one place the account model gets its own account type, with two authorities and an epoch clock.3 min
  8. 8Rent: reclaiming deposits and cleaning upEvery account you have ever created still holds a SOL deposit. Most of them are empty. Here is how the deposit is calculated, why it piles up, and how to get it back.3 min
03

Advanced

What a transaction really is and how programs own state and enforce rules.

  1. 1Anatomy of a Solana transactionWhat your wallet actually signs: the message format, the fee maths, the blockhash clock and the compute budget, from bytes to finality.4 min
  2. 2Compute budget and priority feesEvery instruction runs under a metered budget, and the budget you request is what your priority fee is charged on. Set both deliberately and transactions land cheaper and more reliably.4 min
  3. 3Versioned transactions and lookup tablesA transaction must fit in one 1,232-byte packet, and every account it touches costs 32 of those bytes. Lookup tables cut that to one byte each, and version 0 is the message format that can use them.3 min
  4. 4Program derived addressesHow a program owns and signs for accounts without a private key, the mechanism behind ATAs, metadata, vaults and every trustless escrow.3 min
  5. 5Cross-program invocationPrograms call other programs. That one mechanism is how a swap moves tokens, how a locker signs for its vault, and why one bad step anywhere rolls back everything.3 min
  6. 6Reading an Anchor program from the outsideMost Solana programs are written with Anchor, and Anchor leaves a trail: an IDL, predictable discriminators and typed constraints. With those you can read what a program does without its source.4 min
  7. 7Bonding curves and launchpadsA bonding curve is a market maker with no liquidity providers: a formula that sets the price from how much has been sold. Launchpads are the programs that run one and hand over to a real pool when it fills.3 min
  8. 8Token locks, vesting and escrowA lock is a promise enforced by a program instead of a person. Here is how one is built, how vesting schedules are expressed on-chain, and how to tell a real lock from a wallet with a label on it.5 min
04

Builder

The code behind everything above: programs, clients, tests and pipelines.

  1. 1Your first Anchor programA piggy bank in seventy lines: a PDA that holds SOL and refuses to give it back before a date. Write it, test it, deploy it to devnet, and read it on an explorer.5 min
  2. 2Accounts, constraints and state in codeThe Token Locker's real account structs, line by line: how init, seeds, has_one and init_if_needed turn security rules into declarations, how state is laid out in bytes, and how the program signs for its vault.5 min
  3. 3Building and sending transactions in TypeScriptFrom a list of instructions to a confirmed signature: the send loop every Solstack tool uses, with simulation, compute budget, blockhash expiry and confirmation handled the way the network expects.5 min
  4. 4Tokens from code: mint, ATA, transfer, metadataThe five instructions behind “create a token”, written out with @solana/spl-token: a mint, its metadata, an associated token account, the supply, and the revokes. Then the same mint on Token-2022 with a transfer fee.4 min
  5. 5Calling a program: IDL clients, PDAs and account readsWith an IDL a program becomes a typed client. Derive the addresses, build the instruction, read the state back, filter every account the program owns, and listen for its events, using Solstack's own locker client.4 min
  6. 6Testing programs: local validator, node:test and time travelA program is only as good as the failures you tried to cause. The locker's real test harness: a local validator with the program loaded, plain node:test, assertions on error codes, and a clock you can wait on or set.5 min
  7. 7Program security: the checks that get skippedMost Solana exploits are not clever maths. They are a check the program forgot to make because the runtime does not make it. Eight of them, each as the vulnerable code and the fix.5 min
  8. 8Reading chain data at scaleOne account is an RPC call. A token's ten thousand holders is an architecture decision. The four ways to read the chain, what each costs, and the caching pattern Solstack uses to make holder scans affordable.5 min