The project is developed by Mysten Labs, the team behind Sui, and that Lineage network is important. Walrus is not positioned as a consumer product or a speculative protocol. It is infrastructure designed by engineers with experience in large-scale distributed systems, cryptography, and production blockchain networks. The goal is durability, not experimentation.
Technically, Walrus is a decentralized, verifiable blob storage layer. It allows applications to store large data objects — media files, game assets, AI inputs, historical records — off the execution layer while retaining cryptographic guarantees around availability and integrity. Data is encoded, distributed across storage nodes, and referenced through proofs that smart contracts can verify. This keeps blockchains lean while still allowing them to depend on large datasets.
A key design decision is that Walrus treats storage as persistent infrastructure, not temporary availability. Data is expected to live for long periods, and the protocol is designed to support retrieval and verification over time. This makes Walrus suitable for applications that depend on historical state rather than short-lived transactions.