Solana Education: Why we need a strategic educational system for Solana

The frequent cry, ‘’I’m new to Solana, what do I do,’’ echoes the need for seamless onboarding to Solana. This is a thought-provoking essay on why we need a strategic Solana education system.

7 min readFeb 28, 2024

Imagine buying a Solana mobile phone or a new fridge with no user guide or ‘‘how-to-use’’ educational guide for you — using that device would be difficult. The same thing can be said about Solana; new users need educational guides and resources to get started (onboard) with Solana apps, tools, and services.

This article is focused on answering this question:

what are the current educational resources available for Solana apps, tools, and services to ease new user onboarding?

Introduction

Solana, launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, is known for its speed, efficiency, and low transaction costs.

The speed and efficiency of Solana made Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box in December 2023, say that:

“Solana is doing a really good job. If you look at Ethereum it was faster and cheaper than Bitcoin in the day. Solana is faster and more cost-effective than Ethereum”

The speed and efficiency of Solana have attracted new developers and users alike. New projects spring up on Solana almost every 2 to 3 days, making Solana the most innovative blockchain.

Solana has hosted hackathons for over five years, witnessing participation from 60,000+ developers and securing over $600 million in funding.

During these Solana-hosted hackathons, developers create new apps and tools for Solana. More apps and tools on Solana means more users and educational onboarding resources.

According to Alchemy, over 474 apps and tools are on Solana.

The new user onboarding challenge

While the door to innovation on Solana is wide open, many new users and developers face onboarding challenges.

The complexity of onboarding processes,
Challenges in accessing educational resources, and
Potential user confusion due to information overload.

How can we easily onboard new users to the Solana ecosystem?

You may not understand how important this question is until you see new users and developers struggle with basic Solana features.

Imagine that you subscribe to Twitter Premium as a new user and you struggle to use the app after subscription, I’m sure that will be your last premium subscription.

It’s the same thing with Solana. Many basic features are challenging for many new users. I am sure Tony saw this first-hand, prompting him to make this tweet last year.

I’m new to Solana, what should I do?

Last year, Solana got so much hype that every tech nerd, developer, and crypto guy showed interest in Solana.

@KultureElectric asked on Twitter:

“What are the best resources for devs getting started with Solana at the moment?”

New users want in on Solana but need easy onboarding with Solana educational resources.

A top blockchain like Solana should have more visible educational resources to ease new users’ and developers’ onboarding.

Educational content and strategic educational platforms

We need to ease our onboarding process with educational content and strategic educational platforms.

This need is the only reason for the Solana Scribes hackathon: to create more educational content for Solana.

Solana Scribes hackathon is the first Solana hackathon focused on creating written content and aims to address the lack of documentation and educational resources on Solana.

The importance of Solana’s educational resources

The journey from discovery of Solana to active participation can be complex, posing challenges for those new to Solana.

Scriblooooor in his article “Stop Building for Crypto Twitter”:

Without users, all we have is [a] decentralization theatre, i.e. talk about decentralization without anyone [actually] using decentralized products.

The onboarding process is the gateway for individuals exploring Solana for the first time. A smooth onboarding experience is not just desirable; it is imperative for user retention and the overall health of the Solana ecosystem.

Solana needs real users to utilize Solana products, tools, and services beyond this “Solana hype.”

We can remove barriers for new users with strategic Solana education and educational platforms.

How did Ethereum do it?

Compared to Solana, Ethereum has a wealth of educational content, including comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and guides. This vast resource library caters to users with varying levels of expertise, fostering a better understanding of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum’s educational initiatives extend to developers, with dedicated resources for smart contract development, contributing to Ethereum’s position as a pioneer in decentralized applications.

Ethereum has educational platforms like Consensys Academy, Ethereum Foundation, B9Lab Academy, Ethresear.ch, Truffle University, Ethereum Stack Exchange, Cryptozombies, and integrations with educational platforms like edX and Coursera.

Compared to Ethereum, what does Solana have?

How can we ease onboarding with Solana Educational Resources?

Solana has Superteam, a community of Solana enthusiasts creating educational resources and content for the Solana ecosystem.

During the Superteam writers’ cohort in collaboration with Taptive, we had non-web3 writers onboarded to web3 with our community-created Solana

Initiatives by SuperteamNG, such as the weekly writer’s tasks, have onboarded over 100 new writers to Solana in about a month.

Solana also has ‘‘Solana All Stars,” another community of Solana enthusiasts doing what Superteam does.

But there’s a limit to what Superteam and Solana-All-Stars can do. We need more Superteams and more strategic education and educational platforms like Solana University.

There is a need for integrations of Solana courses on platforms like edX, Udemy, Udacity, and Coursera. Integrations with these established educational platforms would enhance the credibility and accessibility of Solana’s educational content.

On my part, I’m building an online educational platform called EduSolana. EduSolana aims to gamify learning and become a go-to app for Solana onboarding. New users can easily learn about the Solana ecosystem and its tools/ products with EduSolana.

EduSolana is my contribution to Solana Education.

What’s your initiative?

A user’s first interaction with Solana determines whether they become active participants. When those first interactions have challenges, the user may not come back.

What Solana education initiatives should include

Solana’s educational strategy can explore initiatives like:

improved documentation,
diverse content creation,
webinars,
developer support,
collaborations,
community engagement,
hackathons,
global outreach, and
partnerships with academic institutions.

User retention hinges on guiding newcomers through a hassle-free onboarding process, making them feel at home on Solana.

We need more Solana education says Superteam NG lead, Harri

With the Solana educational system in place, more users, more informed Solana community members, and well-educated developers will be there.

Don’t forget that Solana has witnessed remarkable growth with integrations by Visa, Shopify, Mastercard, Google, Stripe, Circle, and Meta. These global brands integrating Solana into their businesses mean one thing:

More users are coming to Solana.

We have to do the right thing to onboard new users now.

Conclusion

The path to widespread adoption of Solana involves addressing onboarding challenges and fostering an inclusive and accessible educational future.

Fostering intuitive onboarding with strategic education and educational platforms on Solana will alleviate the burdens of information overload for new users.

In the hands of every Solana newcomer lies the potential to reshape Solana. We all can play a role by creating educational content for Solana.

I’m contributing with EduSolana; how are you contributing?