Solana Transactions Explained for Backend Developers

#web3 #blockchain #100daysofsolana #solana

Learning Solana transactions completely changed how I think about backend systems.

At first, I treated transactions like normal API requests:

client → server → database → response.

But Solana transactions are different.

They’re signed, temporary, atomic state changes sent to a decentralized network. Instead of “calling a server,” you prepare instructions that validators execute on-chain.

The biggest shift for me was understanding:

recent blockhashes
signatures
atomic execution
compute limits

One thing that made it click for me was actually building and sending transactions with "@solana/kit".

import {
  createSolanaRpc,
  devnet,
  generateKeyPairSigner,
  airdropFactory,
} from "@solana/kit";

const rpc = createSolanaRpc(devnet("https://api.devnet.solana.com"));

const signer = await generateKeyPairSigner();

const airdrop = airdropFactory({ rpc });

await airdrop({
  recipientAddress: signer.address,
  lamports: 1_000_000_000n,
});

console.log("Airdrop complete");