Share your experiences on DEV

The Scenario

Over the past several days, you have generated keypairs, explored different wallet types, and connected a browser wallet. You know that a Solana keypair gives you a public key (your address) and a private key (your proof of ownership). But step back for a moment: what does “identity” actually mean on a blockchain?

In Web2, your identity is scattered across dozens of services. You have a username on GitHub, an email address at work, a phone number with your bank. Each one is controlled by the service provider, and none of them talk to each other unless someone builds an integration. On Solana, identity starts with a single cryptographic keypair, and everything you do on-chain is tied to it. Today, you will write about what that means, and in doing so, solidify your own understanding of on-chain identity.

The Challenge

Write a blog post on DEV Community explaining how identity works on Solana. Your audience is a fellow Web2 developer who has never touched a blockchain. Your goal is to make the concept click by connecting it to things they already know.

What You’ll Need

A DEV Community account (free to create)
Your notes and experience from the past 5 days
The Solana docs on accounts and keypairs for reference

Choosing your angle

A good approach is to start with something your reader already knows from Web2, then show how Solana does it differently. Here are some angles you could take — pick one, combine a few, or find your own:

The keypair as identity: SSH keys are a natural analogy. You generate a key pair, put the public key on a server, and prove who you are by holding the private key. Solana works the same way — except the “server” is the entire network, and the keypair is your identity everywhere.
Public keys vs usernames: A Solana address is a 32-byte Ed25519 public key encoded in Base58 (for example, 14grJpemFaf88c8tiVb77W7TYg2W3ir6pfkKz3YjhhZ5). Base58 is chosen deliberately: it removes visually ambiguous characters like 0, O, I, and l. How is this different from a username sitting in someone else’s database?
Cryptographic ownership vs company-granted access: In Web2, you “own” your account because a company stores your credentials. They can lock you out. On Solana, only the holder of the private key can sign transactions for an account. No company, no admin panel, no password reset flow.
What identity enables: On-chain identity is not just a replacement for usernames. It’s the foundation for token ownership, program interactions, governance votes, and reputation. Because it’s cryptographic and self-custodied, it works across every application on the network without anyone’s permission.

Aim for 500–800 words. That’s enough to make one or two ideas land without turning into a reference doc.

Publishing

Create your post on DEV Community. Give it a title that would make another developer want to click. Add the tags 100daysofsolana, solana, web3, blockchain, and beginners, then hit publish. Share the link with the #100DaysOfSolana hashtag on social media.

What Just Happened

You just took everything you have learned so far about keypairs, wallets, and accounts and turned it into a piece of writing that someone else can learn from. That act of explaining forces you to find the gaps in your own understanding and fill them. You had to articulate concepts in your own words, which is different from following a tutorial or running code.

Writing also creates something durable. The code you have written in previous days lives on your machine. This post lives on the internet, tied to your name, and it is the beginning of building a public identity as a developer who understands Solana. In Web3, reputation is built in the open.

Resources

Submission

Share your published DEV Community post link in the submission box here.