create your own Solana Token...in the terminal (2025 edition)

NetworkChuck Technology Careers Career & Money

About this video

NetworkChuck walks through creating his own Solana token entirely in the terminal, framed as a fun family project — replacing cash allowance with a token he calls KES and having his kids create competing tokens — in a video sponsored by Dashlane. He first explains the distinction he draws between blockchain platforms (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana) and their native coins, then builds on Solana’s free DevNet before repeating the process on mainnet. The workflow: install Docker and build an image containing Rust and the Solana CLI (using WSL on Windows); generate an authority (‘dad’) keypair wallet and a separate mint keypair, stressing that whoever holds the private-key JSON controls the wallet; set the config to DevNet and fund the wallet with free SOL from the Solana faucet; run spl-token create-token with metadata enabled and 9 decimals; upload a square logo and a metadata JSON (name, symbol, description, image URL) to Pinata/IPFS and attach it on-chain; verify the token on the Solana Explorer; create a token account, mint an initial supply, and transfer tokens with spl-token transfer, demonstrated into a Phantom wallet in testnet mode. He then switches to mainnet-beta, funds the wallet with real SOL bought on an exchange, and repeats the creation — he says creating the token cost him about 0.0025 SOL, roughly 59 cents. To make the token buyable he mints a fixed supply (1 billion in his demo), irreversibly disables mint and freeze authority, creates a Raydium liquidity pool — noting in an added segment that creating a pool costs roughly 0.2 SOL in total, about $50 — and burns the LP tokens via Sol Incinerator to lock the liquidity. He repeatedly says this is for fun and tells viewers not to buy his coin. He closes with a show-and-tell automation: a Habitica task-completion webhook triggers a Python web app that runs spl-token transfer to pay his daughters KES, sends him a Slack notification, verifies balances before and after, and applies streak multipliers for sustained habits.

Key takeaways

Practice free on Solana DevNet first — the faucet, minting and transfers work the same as mainnet — then repeat on mainnet-beta with a small amount of real SOL
Terminal workflow: Docker image with Solana CLI, authority + mint keypairs, spl-token create-token with metadata, Pinata/IPFS-hosted logo and metadata JSON, token account, mint, then transfer
Guard the keypair JSON files: they are the private keys, and anyone who imports one controls that wallet and its tokens
Making a token tradeable is the costly, irreversible part: fix the supply, disable mint/freeze authority, fund a Raydium liquidity pool (he says roughly 0.2 SOL total) and burn the LP tokens to lock it
A token becomes programmable allowance when paired with webhooks: his Habitica-to-Python setup auto-transfers KES on task completion with balance checks, Slack alerts and habit-streak multipliers

Episode details: published December 18, 2024 · 41:19 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: who is this even for?? (Raspberry Pi 500) · Next: Access ANY Network (remotely) →

All NetworkChuck videos · NetworkChuck profile · NetworkChuck on YouTube