The Solana Reading List

Curated list of useful Solana resources.

Gm! I’ll get right to it: recently I was asked for a reading list on Solana and I couldn’t come up with anything. So I decided to put this together. Feel free to make suggestions by DMing me on Twitter.

Note: These are all posts that have helped me on some level. I am highly selective about the quality on this list.

The List

• Solana Summer by Packy McCormick — this is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and engaging read about the story of Solana I’ve come across. Suitable for everyone.

• The Year Solana Blew Up by Ryan Shea — a must read for everyone interested in Solana. Suitable for everyone.

• The 7 Solana Innovations by Anatoly Yakovenko — the first post I read about Solana. A bit outdated now but still has a ton of useful information for those curious about the tech and its early days. Mostly suitable for technical readers.

• Solana, When Mainnet by Coinbase — a relatively recent crash-course on the state of Solana. Mostly suitable for technical readers

• Proof of History Primer by Shinobi Systems — an easily digestable deep-dive into what Proof of History (PoH) is and how it works. Suitable for technical readers.

• Firedancer Reliability Efforts by Jump Crypto — a detailed analysis of past Solana outages and how Firedancer (Solana’s 2nd validator client) will tackle them. Suitable for very technical readers.

• Why Solana by Me — a brain dump on why I choose to build on Solana. Suitable for everyone.

• ok so what the fuck is the deal with solana anyway by Hanna — a very entertaining perspective on Solana fundamentals from a top-tier dev and shitposter. Suitable for technical readers.

• Programming on Solana, An Introduction by Paul X — this was the very first post I and most other Solana devs read on Solana programming. Suitable for technical readers.

• Transaction Processing on Solana by Jito — a deep dive into validator internals and how transactions get processed. Suitable for very technical readers.

• Transaction Confirmations by Jstarry — a deep dive into the transaction confirmation process. Suitable for very technical readers.

• The Solana Whitepaper by Anatoly Yakovenko — where it all started. Mostly suitable for everyone.

• State Compression on Solana by Jarry, Noah, Austin, Anatoly — the whitepaper on the theory behind state compression on Solana. Suitable for very technical readers.

• NFT Compression on Solana by Helius — a digestable explainer on how NFT compression works. Suitable for everyone.

• An Overview of The Solana Ecosystem shortly after FTX by Messari — this tackles the state of the ecosystem right after the SBF fiasco. Suitable for everyone.

• Create Your First Solana dApp by Loris — a very easily digestable tutorial on how to write Solana programs. Suitable for everyone (that knows how to code).

• The Solana Cookbook — literally a cookbook for Solana devs. Suitable for technical readers.

• Solana Internals by Sec3 — a 4 part series deep-diving into Solana internals. Suitable for technical readers.

• How NFTs are Represented on Solana by Loris — understand how NFTs are structured on Solana. Suitable for technical readers.

• Slots, Blocks, and Epochs on Solana by Helius — a brief explainer on how slots, blocks, and epochs work on Solana. Suitable for everyone.

• Solana Internals by MetaProph3t — a digestable explainer on various Solana inner workings. Suitable for technical readers.

• Local Fee Markets on Solana by 7Layer — a comprehensive deep dive into what fee markets are, how they work, and why they’re useful. Suitable for everyone.

• A Dummy’s Guide to Solana’s Architecture by Anvit - an overview of Solana’s architecture. Suitable for everyone.

• Who Should Build on Solana by me — an essay trying to discover Solana’s demographic.

• Lifecycle of a Solana Transaction by Umbra Research — a simple guide explaining how transactions are built, scheduled, and executed on Solana. Suitable for technical readers.

If you’d like to submit a resource to be included on this list, DM me on Twitter.