Walrus (WAL) and the Walrus protocol is one of those projects I didn’t appreciate at first, until I kept running into the same problem again and again.
Crypto is amazing at moving value. You can send tokens, swap assets, stake, vote, do everything onchain. But the moment someone asks a simple question like, “Okay… where is the actual file?” things get awkward. Because most real things people use are not tiny bits of text. They are big files. Videos, images, music, game assets, AI datasets, documents, archives. And storing those huge files directly on a blockchain is usually too expensive and not practical.
So what happens? People store the files on normal cloud servers instead. And then the whole promise of decentralization becomes weaker, because one company still controls the data.
That’s the gap Walrus is trying to fill. And honestly, it’s a gap crypto can’t ignore anymore.
Walrus is built for large files. They call them blobs, which simply means big chunks of data. The idea is simple but powerful. Instead of storing the full file on every node, Walrus breaks the file into smaller pieces and spreads those pieces across many different storage nodes. And then it adds extra recovery pieces using something called erasure coding.
If you’ve never heard that term, don’t worry. The easiest way I explain it is like this. Imagine you tear an important paper into many pieces, and you also create some smart backup pieces. Even if a few pieces get lost, you can still rebuild the full paper. That’s the purpose. It makes storage more resilient without wasting massive space by copying the whole file everywhere.
This is also where Walrus becomes interesting compared to basic storage systems. It is not just about storing files. It is about being able to prove the file is still available.
Walrus is designed to work closely with Sui. In a simple way, you can think of Sui as the coordination and verification layer, while Walrus nodes handle the heavy storage work. This connection allows applications to keep important records and proofs onchain, while the big file data stays distributed across the Walrus network.
That matters because it reduces blind trust. An app doesn’t have to just “claim” a file exists. It can verify that the network is still holding the data.
And once you start thinking like a builder, you can see why this is valuable.
If you’re building AI apps, you need reliable storage for datasets, agent memory, logs, and outputs. If you’re building games, you need a place for large assets that won’t disappear if a company changes policy. If you’re building media platforms or esports archives, you need long-term storage that isn’t at the mercy of one provider. If you’re building systems around tokenized data, storage isn’t a side detail, it’s the core of the product.
Walrus can support all of that because it is designed for big data from the start.
Now about WAL, the token. WAL is meant to power the network. In simple terms, it can be used to pay for storage services and help secure the system through staking. Storage nodes need incentives to stay online, perform well, and follow the rules. Without that, no storage network stays strong for long. WAL becomes part of the engine that keeps storage reliable.
I also pay attention to the team and background. Walrus is closely connected to the Sui ecosystem and was developed with involvement from Mysten Labs, the same group behind Sui. That doesn’t automatically guarantee success, but it does signal serious engineering focus. And when it comes to storage infrastructure, engineering matters more than hype.
Of course, Walrus still has the same big challenge every infrastructure project has. Adoption. Developers need to use it. Real apps need to depend on it. The network needs to stay stable under real pressure, not only in ideal conditions.
But personally, I like what Walrus is aiming for.
It doesn’t feel like a project that exists only for trading. It feels like a project trying to fix a real weakness in Web3. And if it keeps growing and keeps proving itself in real use cases, I can easily imagine Walrus becoming one of those quiet pieces of infrastructure that ends up everywhere, even if people don’t talk about it every day.
That’s my honest feeling. Walrus feels like “plumbing,” and I mean that as a compliment. If crypto is going to become normal for everyday people, it needs strong, reliable systems for real data, not just tokens.