At the heart of Walrus’s architecture is a technical innovation called RedStuff, a two-dimensional erasure coding scheme that allows efficient storage and recovery of large data objects (“blobs”). Unlike traditional replication that stores full copies of data on multiple nodes — which can be expensive and inefficient — RedStuff splits data into smaller encoded slivers and distributes them across the network. This approach dramatically reduces storage overhead while maintaining high resilience. Even if a significant portion of nodes fail or behave maliciously, the original data can still be reconstructed because enough encoded slivers remain.
This technical design is further enhanced by deep integration with the Sui blockchain. Sui coordinates metadata, payment flows, and proof verification via smart contracts. Stored blobs and storage space on Walrus are represented as resources on Sui, enabling developers to programmatically manage data lifecycle, access permissions, and storage contracts — all without centralized intermediaries. The combined design of robust erasure coding plus on-chain coordination enables Walrus to support scalable, secure, and cost-efficient storage solutions that traditional decentralized networks have struggled to provide.
