---
url: /academy-handbook/getting-started/tools.md
---
# Week 0 · Part 3 — The Web3 tool map

[Part 2](./glossary.md) gave you the words. This gives you the places those
words point to.

::: important The instinct this page is building
When someone asks *"is this project actually used, or does it just have a good
website?"*, an experienced person does not know the answer — they know **==which
tab to open==**.

That is most of what separates someone who can navigate this industry from
someone who can only repeat what they heard on X.
:::

You are not learning to use these tools today. You are learning that they exist
and what each is for.

## Learning objectives

* Name the right category of tool for a given question, without being told
* Explain what a block explorer shows you and why that matters
* Distinguish direct chain records from derived analytics
* Recognise the tools this programme will actually put in your hands

## Core

### The map

Do not memorise this. Recognise it. **Bold** tools are ones you will personally
use.

| Tool | What do I open it for? | We use it in |
|---|---|---|
| MetaMask | Create a wallet, sign and send transactions | Week 1 |
| Etherscan | Check what actually happened on Ethereum | Weeks 1–3 |
| Solscan | The same, for Solana | Landscape |
| GitHub | Read a protocol's code, and store Deep Dive or Proof of Work evidence | Weeks 0, 4–8 |
| Remix | Write and deploy a simple smart contract | Week 3 |
| DefiLlama | Compare protocols and chains by size | Weeks 2, 4 |
| Dune | Explore on-chain data and dashboards | Week 4 |
| L2BEAT | Understand Layer 2 security and trust assumptions | Weeks 2, 4 |
| Messari Research | Read structured professional research | Week 4 |
| Snapshot | See how a change gets decided | Week 4 |
| **Governance forums** | Read proposals before anyone votes | Week 4 |
| X | Find out what is happening right now | Week 4 |
| Discord | Find community discussion and support | Week 4 |
| Telegram | Find community announcements and discussion | Week 4 |

::: important The teaching idea is one arrow

> \==**Question → Tool**==

You are not memorising a directory. You are building the reflex of knowing which
tab to open when you have a specific question.
:::

### The one idea that makes the map make sense

Everything above fits into five kinds of source. Knowing which kind you are
looking at is more useful than knowing any individual tool.

:::: card-grid
::: card title="Primary sources" icon="material-symbols:description-outline"
Project docs, GitHub and governance forums: what a project says, specifies or
proposes.
:::
::: card title="Direct chain records" icon="material-symbols:receipt-long"
Explorers and transactions: what actually happened on-chain.
:::
::: card title="Derived analytics" icon="material-symbols:query-stats"
Dashboards and aggregators: useful interpretations built from raw data.
:::
::: card title="Independent research" icon="material-symbols:fact-check-outline"
Reports and audits: third-party interpretation and risk analysis.
:::
::: card title="Current discussion" icon="material-symbols:forum-outline"
Social, community and news: discovery and context, not final proof.
:::
::::

Different sources answer different questions. Use the source that fits the
question, then cross-check before concluding.

::: warning The practical rule
\==**Use social media for discovery, not as the final evidence for an important
claim.**== X is excellent for finding out that something happened. It is a poor
place to confirm it happened the way someone says it did.
:::

### The tools you'll actually touch

:::: tabs
@tab Wallets

\==A wallet does not hold your coins. It holds the **keys** that let you authorise
changes to a shared record — the coins were never anywhere but the blockchain.==
Week 1 covers this properly.

| Wallet | Chains | Note |
|---|---|---|
| MetaMask | Ethereum and EVM chains | The default for this programme |
| Phantom | Solana, plus others | The Solana equivalent |
| Rabby | Ethereum and EVM chains | Shows more clearly what you are about to sign |

You will install MetaMask in Week 1, **not today** — and it will be a fresh
wallet holding testnet assets only.

@tab Block explorers

A search engine for a blockchain. Every transaction, address, contract and fee —
all public, readable by anyone, no account required.

::: tip This is a genuinely unusual property
You cannot look up a stranger's bank transfer. You *can* look up any transaction
that has ever happened on Ethereum.
:::

On Etherscan you can check:

* whether a transaction succeeded or failed, and what it cost
* everything an address has ever done
* the **verified source code** of a contract, if its developers published it
* which tokens an address holds

That third one is the quiet one. **Without verified source code, outsiders can
see the deployed bytecode but cannot easily inspect the original human-readable
code.** You will use this in Week 3.

Solana's equivalent is Solscan.

@tab Derived analytics

These sites turn on-chain data into useful comparisons and dashboards:

| Site | Answers |
|---|---|
| DefiLlama | Value deposited across protocols and chains |
| Dune | Query on-chain data and publish dashboards |

::: warning Derived analytics are interpretations
Someone chose what counts as "value locked" and what does not. Useful for
comparison, not for settling a disputed claim.
:::
::::

## Landscape

Recognise these; you will not use them before Week 4.

| Tool | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Dune | Queries indexed blockchain data and turns the results into dashboards. The result depends on the query and definitions used |
| Messari Research | Provides structured sector and protocol research. It adds interpretation, so important claims still need checking |
| Snapshot | Runs off-chain governance votes. It records a choice but does not itself change a contract's state |
| **Governance forums** | Where proposals get argued before anyone votes. The discussion can reveal assumptions and disagreement that a vote alone would hide |
| The Graph | Indexes chain data so applications can query it more easily. An index is useful, but can still need checking against the chain |
| OpenZeppelin | Publishes widely used contract libraries that reduce reinvention. Using a reviewed library lowers risk but is not a guarantee |
| Alchemy / Infura | Infrastructure providers running nodes so applications don't have to. An outage can interrupt access without meaning the chain stopped |
| Foundry / Hardhat | Developer toolkits for compiling, testing and deploying contracts. They help catch mistakes before a transaction is sent |

## Worked example

> **"Is Base actually used, or is the activity mostly marketing?"**

Watch which tab opens at each step.

| Step | Tool | What it tells you | What it doesn't |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. What does it claim to be? | [base.org](https://base.org) + docs | An Ethereum L2 built by Coinbase | Whether any of it is used |
| 2. What is the trust model? | [L2BEAT](https://l2beat.com/) | Who can upgrade it, how withdrawals are secured | Usage |
| 3. Is value actually on it? | [DefiLlama](https://defillama.com/) | Value deposited, and the trend | Whether it's a few whales |
| 4. Who is doing the activity? | [Dune](https://dune.com/) | Active addresses over time | Intent |
| 5. What are people saying? | X, Discord | Current narrative, complaints | Anything verified |

::: important Notice the ordering
Step 1 uses a primary source. Step 2 uses independent research. Steps 3–4 use
derived analytics. Step 5 is current discussion.

A beginner starts at step 5 and stops there, because it is the loudest and
easiest. This workflow starts with what can be **checked** and uses social media
last, for context rather than proof.
:::

Also notice what no tool told you: **whether Base is a good investment.** No tool
on this page answers that, and nothing in this programme is financial advice.

::: details Further exploration — optional, not assessed

* [ethereum.org — Block explorers](https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/data-and-analytics/block-explorers/) — what explorers index and how
* [L2BEAT](https://l2beat.com/) — read one network's risk summary. The clearest public writing on trust assumptions you will find
* [Dune](https://dune.com/) — browse public dashboards. No account needed to look
  :::

::: details Sources and attribution

* [ethereum.org — Wallets](https://ethereum.org/wallets/) — Reuse (CC BY 4.0), adapted
* [ethereum.org — Block explorers](https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/data-and-analytics/block-explorers/) — Reuse (CC BY 4.0), adapted
* [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/) · [L2BEAT](https://l2beat.com/) · [DefiLlama](https://defillama.com/) · [Dune](https://dune.com/) · [Remix IDE](https://remix.ethereum.org/) — Link, referenced only
  :::