MakerDAO To Build On Solana, Solana Enters Formula 1 & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Flabbergastation: MakerDAO considers building on Solana.

• Profitable Email: SolLinked users earn USDC by responding to emails.

• Formula 1: Mad Lads & Claynosaurz holders get their NFTs on F1 cars.

Onboarding new developers to Solana is too difficult.

Mainly, this is due to the state of both network-specific and protocol-specific documentation within the ecosystem.

In this week’s edition, we thus take a look at Solana’s documentation landscape and discuss what’s required to onboard new developers more efficiently and effectively.

Let’s get into it!

Click on any underlined heading / hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Documentation In Shambles

Good documentation plays a pivotal role in onboarding new developers to Solana.

• Firstly, new developers that want to build on Solana often face a steep learning curve. In order to accelerate their learning process, easy to access and clear documentation is essential. Otherwise, new developers might spend valuable time piecing together information from various sources, which can be frustrating and counterproductive.

• Secondly, by having well-written documentation as a readily available resource, new developers can find answers to common questions and troubleshoot issues independently. This self-reliance not only speeds up their onboarding but also frees up experienced developers to focus on more complex tasks.

• Thirdly, a well-documented onboarding funnel that includes e.g. network architecture, design principles, naming/coding conventions, best practices, and specific workflows ensures consistency. That’s because it allows new developers to produce code that aligns with the existing structure and style within the ecosystem. Also, it improves the overall output quality and reduces error rates. This can result in fewer bugs and smoother development cycles, ultimately saving time and resources.

• Moreover, a collaborative environment is only possible when new developers can review code, provide feedback, and coordinate on complex tasks. In order to do so, however, they first need access to good documentation. When everyone understands how things work, it simply becomes easier to collaborate effectively — which is particularly beneficial in an OSS ecosystem which depends on code being understood, maintained, and expanded on.

• In addition to a more effective collaboration, good documentation also enables knowledge preservation. Projects and teams evolve over time, and developers come and go. Without proper documentation, critical information about e.g. design decisions, APIs, and troubleshooting tips may be lost. As such, continuous documentation acts as a knowledge repository, ensuring that critical knowledge is retained and remains accessible.

As you can see, documentation provides a structured and accessible way for new developers to effectively and efficiently acquire the knowledge they need. Also, it demonstrates a commitment to maintaining high standards and fostering a healthy developer community — one of the most attractive factors for new developers.

Having said that, it seems as if we haven’t internalised any of this.

How so?

Well, good documentation on Solana is rare, and if it exists, it's not well maintained and often out of date — all while the overall documentation landscape is highly fragmented and not logically linked, making it difficult to digest and upskill.

Generally speaking, this seems to apply to both network-specific and protocol-specific documentation.

As a result, it appears that we’re experiencing high churn rates when trying to onboard new developers to Solana; and if new developers do stick it out, their onboarding is often slow, bothersome, and frustrating.

In this context, just take a look at some of the replies that were left on Mert’s recent post with the question: What’s the hardest part about developing on Solana?

Sure, we can argue that it's a mindset thing and new developers need to be committed and creative troubleshooters so that they can onboard themselves successfully.

However, by putting the onboarding burden on new developers, we’ll not add enough brain power quickly enough to build the self custody future we all strive for.

Thus, teams building on Solana should move away from the “publish and forget” modus operandi when it comes to documentation and start treating it as part of their product portfolio which needs to be easily accessible, quickly digestible, continuously maintained, and regularly expanded on.

This is me appealing to your inner Tolstoy, Shakespeare, or Hemingway — all for the noble cause of better Solana docs.

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Flabbergastation: One of the oldest DAOs on Ethereum, MakerDAO, is considering Solana for a complete reimplementation of its protocol.

Profitable Email: SolLinked allows users to charge a price for emails they receive, read, and respond to. The service can be set up without an account or credit card — only a wallet is required. Basically, this is a creative way of curbing the rising tide of spam and freeing up overflowing inboxes.

Solana Fuzzing: Ackee has introduced Trdelnik as the first fuzzer on Solana, streamlining the detection of bugs and vulnerabilities. Trdelnik also allows Solana developers to secure their code at the base level before an official audit has been completed.

Community Power: Over the last couple of weeks, Kraken ran a community competition on Twitter/X to determine which NFTs should be featured on the rear wing of Williams Racing Formula 1 cars. 4 spots were up for grabs, 2 of which were secured by Solana NFT communities, Mad Lads and Claynosaurz, and 2 by former Solana NFT communities, DeGods and y00ts. Solana NFTs = community activation at its finest!

Going Into Hyperdrive: The next official Solana hackathon has been announced: Hyperdrive. It will start on the 6th of September and developers will also be able to join Superteam in more than 19 countries to kickstart their Hyperdrive projects.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens / equity.}