Week 2 on Solana: When the "Public Database" Finally Clicked

I'm doing the 100 Days of Solana challenge by MLH, and Week 2 just changed how I think about blockchain data entirely. Week 1 was about identity — generating keypairs, understanding wallets, getting devnet SOL. That part felt familiar, like setting up a dev environment. Week 2 was different. Week 2 was about reading the chain — and that's where the mental model shift actually happened. What I expected vs what I got I expected reading blockchain data to feel like calling a mysterious, slow, compl