You have been keeping an eye on Bitcoin for years, from the sidelines, and now it is over $60,000 for 1 coin. Don’t fret, friend. There is another blockchain you may not have heard of. I am talking about Solana. There are actually many many blockchains, but Solana is our focus here today, and I have the easiest path for you to get up and running.
First, Some Basic Crypto Terminology
Welcome to the world of Magic Internet Money. In this guide, I am going to show you how to do things but not get too technical. Let’s get familiar with some terms.
Blockchain
A blockchain is a network of computers across the globe that together keep a digital record of transactions that take place across that blockchain. You may hear people referring to them as being decentralized, which means there is no primary computer that controls everything.
Cryptocurrency Wallet
You can guess this one. You need a place to store your crypto coins. There are many software wallets to choose from, and they are all free…I think; I have not come across a paid one yet.
• The typical software wallet lives as a browser extension on your computer, such as the Phantom wallet on Google Chrome (I use this one. More on that later.) There is also an app for your phone.
• A software wallet is also referred to as a hot wallet because it is always connected to the internet.
• If there is hot then there must also be cold? Yes, a cold wallet is a hardware wallet physical device that is offline when not in use; more secure by design. I don’t have one of these, yet.
Wallet Address
Your wallet has a unique address of letters and numbers that you will never memorize unless you are some kind of super genius. They look like this: FzH6NnNJhByKoEvMmVR19LFfC1Fd7ay69otJPQVeZfFb
• We send and receive cryptocurrency from wallet to wallet across the blockchain by specifying the destination wallet address.
• It is very important that you have that wallet address exactly correct or you will be sending money to a stranger or to an empty void, lost forever.
• Tip: When in doubt, send a very small amount of coin to test that it is received.
Seed Phrase
When you create a new software wallet you are issued a seed phrase. This is a unique series of 12, 18, or 24 words that is specifically associated with your new wallet.
• DO NOT LOSE THIS. Keep it somewhere safe. If someone gets a hold of your seed phrase then they can install your wallet on their device, no passwords or other verification necessary. Also, if you lose this seed phrase and your wallet app on your device is no longer accessible (because your device was lost/stolen, you reformatted it, you uninstalled the app, etc) then I am very sorry my friend, but you have just lost your wallet forever. There is no other recovery method. No one to call for help.
Non-Custodial Wallet
Every type of wallet mentioned so far is non-custodial. You are 100% responsible for maintaining access to it.
Exchange
An exchange is a platform where you can buy/sell/trade cryptocurrency. You can convert it into your local currency and transfer it to your bank account. It’s a website, like Coinbase.com. You create an account that you access with username and password. They put you through an identity verification process where you have to upload photos of your drivers license, etc.
• Your account at the exchange automatically comes with a crypto wallet referred to as a custodial wallet.
• There is no seed phrase for you to save with this one. The exchange holds the private keys to your wallet and you just need to login in the typical way.
• You can use this wallet as your wallet to hold your crypto, but a lot of people recommend you transfer it out to a non-custodial wallet so that you don’t have a 3rd party (the exchange) that could go down or something happens and you can’t access your coins.
The EASIEST Wallet
Are you still with me? I put you through all of that terminology first because that is how I prefer to learn things.
Now let’s get you signed up for the easiest wallet, in my opinion, but more importantly… this wallet also comes with:
• a community of friendly people from all over the world who enjoy learning about and earning crypto coins, together.
• a FIAT on-ramp, sorry I forgot a term. This is a method of buying crypto using your credit card or bank account. FIAT is your country’s money and the on-ramp means you are loading funds into your wallet.
• easy methods for you to create and sell your own NFTs
• easy methods for you to charge for any service you want to offer and be paid in crypto or FIAT
• ways to earn points which translate into crypto coins that you can earn for free every day.
The community is called Gary Club and I invite you to sign up via my referral link so I can help you.
Just need your name, username, email, and a password and you are all setup with an account at the Gary Club community which comes with a custodial wallet.
The Gary Club ecosystem utilizes the Solana blockchain. It’s main coin is the $GARY coin which is a full-fledged solana network coin. You can check out it’s current value on Coin Gecko and similar sites.
Using the FIAT on-ramp you can buy some SOL coin or GARY coin.
You can send coin to your Gary Club wallet address from another wallet or another person.
You can read my article about Ways to Monetize in Web3.
You can read my article about Points Farming in Gary Club to earn free GARY coin each day.
Solana NFTs
In addition to crypto coins, the blockchain also keeps a record of ownership of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). One of my favorite NFT projects on Solana is the GiraffeTower. You can browse the collection at the Magic Eden Marketplace.
The Giraffe Tower NFT project is part of Gary Club and you get considerable perks in the club for owning one.
Brief History: The project actually started on the Ethereum blockchain, which was slow and had high gas fees, so the project migrated to Solana to enjoy faster transactions and considerably smaller gas fees.
My NFT Project
Thanks to the wonderful tech at Gary Club I was able to mint my own NFT collection on Solana very easily. If you are interested you can browse my collection at ADHDGiraffes.com
Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoyed learning about getting started with Solana. There is a lot more information out there, but I kept this to an entry-level.
Again, if you want to join me in Gary Club for your free solana wallet then you can register here.
Meir is a web developer with 20+ years of experience. He has been part of the Gary Club community since March of 2021.
