#walrus is a decentralized storage protocol built by My stens Labs, the same team behind the Sui blockchain, designed specifically for storing large data objects like files, videos, images, and datasets in a cost-efficient and highly available manner. It addresses the fundamental problem that storing large amounts of data directly on blockchains is prohibitively expensive, while relying on centralized storage creates single points of failure and platform risk that undermine blockchain applications.
The protocol uses erasure coding technology that breaks data into smaller fragments, encodes them with redundancy, and distributes these pieces across a network of independent storage nodes. This approach is far more efficient than traditional replication where entire copies of data are stored multiple times. With erasure coding, Walrus can reconstruct the original data even if a significant portion of storage nodes go offline or fail, providing high availability and resilience without the storage overhead of full replication. The mathematical properties ensure that you only need a subset of the fragments to recover the complete original file.
Walrus integrates tightly with the Sui ecosystem, leveraging Suis high-performance infrastructure for coordination, proof verification, and economic incentives. Storage nodes stake SUI tokens and earn rewards for reliably storing and serving data, while slashing mechanisms penalize nodes that fail to maintain availability or provide incorrect data. The protocol uses cryptographic proofs to verify that storage nodes are actually holding the data they claim to store, preventing nodes from claiming rewards without doing the work. The economic model aims for competitive pricing with traditional cloud storage by optimizing for blob storage of large objects rather than trying to store everything on-chain. @Walrus 🦭/acc $WAL
