I used to see Web3 developers as mystery men.

People with deep knowledge of cryptography, blockchains, wallets, distributed systems, and concepts that looked impossible to understand unless you had spent years in the space.

Meanwhile, there was me — a regular Web2 developer building traditional backend servers and frontend applications while quietly avoiding anything related to Web3.

Sometime last week, while researching open source opportunities as a developer, I stumbled on the 100 Days of Solana Challenge on MLH .

(And yes, I genuinely love open source.…