Sui ecosystem recently launched an interesting infrastructure——Walrus, positioned as "decentralized cloud storage + programmable hard drive," specifically designed to solve the pain point of massive data storage for AI, gaming, media, and Web3 applications.

This project comes from the official Sui team, and the core problem is quite straightforward: storing large files like videos, pictures, AI training datasets, NFTs, or websites on the blockchain is prohibitively expensive and particularly resource-consuming. Walrus employed a clever technical solution——erasure coding combined with RedStuff encoding——to slice files and distribute them across multiple nodes. With only 4-5 redundancy copies, it can ensure data security and claims to reduce storage costs by 80-100 times. Once data is uploaded, it can be permanently stored, and can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

From an application perspective, its strongest point is programmability. Data stored on Walrus can directly interact with Sui smart contracts, meaning automatic renewal, access control, and data ownership trading can all be implemented through code. The WAL token is used to pay storage fees, stake for rewards, and participate in governance.

The financing background is also solid——it raised @E140@ million in funding, with top-tier institutions like a16z and Standard Crypto participating. Mainnet launched in March this year, making this track's development worth following.