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Hauwa Ibrahim — Mon, 18 May 2026 18:57:45 +0000

Syed Ahmer Shah

May 16 '25

How AI is Revolutionizing the Coding Workforce in 2025

#ai #programming #ahmershah #ahmershahdev

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From CLI Commands to My First Solana Transfer Tool

Hauwa Ibrahim — Sat, 16 May 2026 21:47:51 +0000

By this point in the #100DaysOfSolana course, I had already explored a few different aspects of Solana, not just the CLI. But when I first started experimenting, I was mainly running one‑off CLI commands on devnet:

solana transfer <recipient> <amount>

It worked, but it felt awkward. Each time I wanted to send SOL I had to type in the recipient and the amount again, with no balance checks or helpful feedback — just bare commands.

On Day 17, the course pushed me to go further: instead of repeating raw CLI commands, I built my own Node.js script. Now I can run:

node transfer.mjs <recipient> 0.05

The recipient and amount are passed in as arguments, and the script handles the rest — checking balances, sending the transaction, and even giving me a link to Solana Explorer. That was the moment things started to click. I wasn’t just typing commands anymore, I was building a tool I could reuse.

The Struggle

At first, I thought it would be straightforward. But I quickly ran into issues:

Node v12 didn’t support modern syntax like ?? and ?..
Even after upgrading, I hit the dreaded error:

  Transfer failed: No random values implementation could be found.

Debugging felt endless. I was learning Web3 concepts while also fighting with Web2 runtime quirks.

The Breakthrough

The breakthrough came when I realized the Solana kit I was using expected browser‑like APIs. Node didn’t expose them globally. So I patched my environment:

import { webcrypto } from "node:crypto";
globalThis.crypto = webcrypto;

// Polyfill CustomEvent for Node.js < 18.7
if (typeof CustomEvent === "undefined") {
  globalThis.CustomEvent = class CustomEvent extends Event {
    constructor(type, options = {}) {
      super(type, options);
      this.detail = options.detail ?? null;
    }
  };
}

Suddenly, the randomness error disappeared. My script connected, checked balances, built transactions, and confirmed them with a link to Solana Explorer.

The Result

Now I have a reusable CLI transfer tool that:

Accepts recipient + amount as arguments
Checks my balance before sending
Reports the result with a signature and Explorer link
Shows my updated balance after the transfer

What started as a one‑off CLI experiment became a proper utility — something I can reuse, extend, and share.

My Takeaway

Web3 isn’t magic. It’s just APIs, runtimes, and debugging like any other stack. The difference is that every bug you fix teaches you something deeper about how blockchains work.

If you’re a web or mobile developer curious about Solana, start small. Wrap a CLI command in code. Debug the errors. Before you know it, you’ll have built your own tool — and you’ll understand Solana a lot better.

I went from typing raw commands to building my first Solana transfer tool. And the best part? It feels like the beginning of something bigger.

My Solana Journey: Week Two

Hauwa Ibrahim — Mon, 11 May 2026 19:45:06 +0000

When I first started exploring Solana, I wasn’t sure what blockchain data would look like. I imagined something abstract and hidden away, but the reality was surprisingly transparent. Every time someone sends SOL, creates a token, or interacts with a program, it’s recorded as a transaction that anyone can look up. Seeing that history unfold in Solana Explorer made the “public database” idea click in a very real way. It’s both fascinating and a little intimidating to realize how open the system is.

One of the biggest breakthroughs for me was understanding what a signature and a slot mean. At first, those terms felt cryptic, but once I connected them to how transactions are verified and ordered, it started to make sense. That moment of clarity was exciting—it felt like peeling back a layer of mystery.

Another surprise was realizing that every wallet on Solana is actually an account. That framing helped me see the network less like a collection of disconnected addresses and more like a structured system where each account has its own state and history.

That said, I’m still figuring out what exactly a transaction entails beyond just “sending SOL.” I’ve interacted with Solana Explorer, but I want to dive deeper into how program interactions are represented and what all the fields mean. There’s a lot of detail in the RPC responses that I haven’t fully decoded yet.

What’s next for me? I want to learn more about reading on-chain data programmatically and compare it to working with traditional APIs. I suspect the differences will be eye-opening, especially around how state is managed and queried.

Identity on Blockchain: How It Differs from the Traditional Web (with a Focus on Solana)

Hauwa Ibrahim — Fri, 01 May 2026 20:30:22 +0000

Over the past week, I started learning about blockchain, and one of the first concepts I encountered was identity. In our everyday lives, identity is the way we prove who we are. Governments issue ID cards with photos and biometrics, banks assign account numbers with passwords, and online platforms like Google or Facebook give us usernames and passwords to access services. These are all forms of identity, but they rely on centralized authorities—institutions that validate and store our information.

On the internet, identity is often tied to accounts managed by large corporations. A Google account, for example, lets you sign in to countless applications, but Google ultimately controls that identity. If they revoke access, you lose it. This model works, but it raises questions about privacy, ownership, and control. Blockchain networks, however, introduce a fundamentally different way of thinking about identity.

How Identity Works in Blockchain
At its core, blockchain identity is based on cryptography. Instead of usernames and passwords stored by a company, blockchain identity is defined by a keypair: a public key and a private key.

Public Key: This is like your address. On Solana, it’s a long string of characters that uniquely identifies you on the network. Anyone can see it, and it’s used to receive tokens, interact with smart contracts, or participate in decentralized applications (dApps).

Private Key: This is your secret. It proves ownership of the public key and allows you to sign transactions. If someone else gains access to your private key, they effectively become you on the blockchain.

This system is similar to having a bank account number (public key) and a PIN (private key), but with one crucial difference: no central authority issues or controls these keys. You generate them yourself, and ownership is entirely in your hands.

Why Blockchain Identity Is Different
The difference between blockchain identity and traditional web identity lies in decentralization and self-sovereignty.

Ownership: On the traditional web, your identity is managed by platforms. On blockchain, you own your identity outright. Your keys are generated locally, and no one can revoke them.

Portability: A Google account works across Google services, but not outside them. A blockchain identity, however, is portable across the entire network. On Solana, the same public key can interact with hundreds of dApps, from decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms to NFT marketplaces, without needing separate logins.

Trustless Verification: Traditional identity requires trust in institutions. Blockchain identity relies on cryptographic proof. When you sign a transaction with your private key, the network can mathematically verify it without needing to “trust” a third party.

Privacy: On the web, accounts are tied to personal information—emails, phone numbers, sometimes even government IDs. On blockchain, your identity is pseudonymous. Your public key doesn’t reveal your name or personal details unless you choose to link them.

Identity on Solana
Solana, a high-performance blockchain, takes these principles and applies them at scale. Because Solana is designed for speed and low transaction costs, identity on Solana is not just secure but also highly practical.

Wallets as Identity: On Solana, your identity is represented by your wallet. Popular wallets like Phantom or Solflare generate and manage your keypair. When you connect your wallet to a dApp, you’re proving your identity by signing with your private key.

Single Sign-On for Web3: Instead of creating accounts with usernames and passwords, Solana users simply connect their wallet. This acts as a universal login across the ecosystem. It’s like having one identity that works everywhere, but without a corporation in control.

Programmable Identity: Solana’s smart contracts allow developers to build applications that recognize and interact with identities directly. For example, an NFT marketplace can verify ownership of digital assets tied to your public key, or a DeFi protocol can grant access to services based on your wallet’s activity.

Conclusion
Identity on blockchain, and specifically on Solana, represents a shift from centralized control to self-sovereignty. Instead of relying on corporations or governments to define who you are online, you generate and own your identity through cryptographic keys. This identity is portable, secure, and verifiable across the entire Solana ecosystem.

An Overview of Wallets on the Solana Network and Their Use Cases

Hauwa Ibrahim — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 21:46:23 +0000

Day 5 of #100daysofsolana

Wallet are a means of authenticating an identity on blockchain apart from their other use of storing funds in them. It can be comparable to a google account which we use to sign in/up on different platforms on the internet

Over the past days I learnt about solana wallets and some of their types which includes - CLI wallets, Wallet extensions, mobile wallet.

CLI wallet: This is a wallet created on a computer terminal .
When is it used?
This is usually used in development i.e when writing script and testing a program
It has a shortfall, the private key is stored in a file on a computer which can be read by anyone who has access to the computer. Real money can't be stored in it.

Browser extension wallet: This encrypt private keys, add password layer to prevent unaauthorized access, approves or disapprove transactions whenever a site requests of it. This is safer than CLI wallet and allows for interaction with decentralised applications(dApps)

Mobile wallet: This has an additional layer of protection, it supports biometrics authentication(FaceId and fingerprint) alongside password. Real money can be stored on it.