Walrus is rapidly emerging as a powerful solution across many industries and real-world applications. Its value becomes especially clear in environments where data is large, constantly expanding, and difficult—or even impossible—to store directly onchain. By combining decentralization, scalability, and accessibility, Walrus introduces an approach to storage that aligns with the future direction of both blockchain technology and the broader internet.
Applications Across Multiple Industries
1. Media and Communication
In the media and communication sector, Walrus provides a highly scalable solution for handling large datasets that cannot be efficiently stored onchain. Traditional blockchains are not built to hold massive quantities of raw content such as high-resolution images, full-length videos, extensive archives of articles, or complex multimedia files. Attempting to store such information directly onchain would be extremely expensive, inefficient, and in many cases technically impractical.
Walrus addresses this challenge by enabling decentralized storage of large data assets while still supporting reliable access and verification. This makes it particularly suitable for modern content platforms that publish at high volume and must maintain a strong archive over time. For example, content platforms such as Decrypt can store their entire content libraries on Walrus. Instead of relying on centralized servers that are costly to maintain and vulnerable to outages, platforms can use Walrus to preserve and distribute content in a resilient and decentralized manner.
In addition, Walrus offers strong advantages for digital ownership through blockchain-based assets. NFTs can be stored on Walrus to preserve the integrity of ownership, ensuring that associated content remains available, verifiable, and protected from manipulation. This matters because an NFT is not only a token—it often represents access to media or intellectual property stored elsewhere. If that media disappears due to broken links, server shutdowns, or storage provider failures, the NFT loses significant value. By allowing the media and metadata linked to NFTs to remain accessible and resistant to censorship or deletion, Walrus supports long-term reliability for digital ownership.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
In the field of AI, Walrus introduces a distinctive and practical method for dealing with the enormous data requirements of machine learning models. Modern AI systems depend heavily on data—not only in large quantities, but also in terms of freshness, accuracy, and real-time availability. Whether the model is being trained, tested, updated, or used in production environments, the underlying infrastructure must handle complex datasets efficiently and consistently.
Because many AI systems rely on real-time information, decentralized storage can play a meaningful role by ensuring that data remains accessible without being controlled by a single centralized provider. When data is stored in a decentralized manner, it becomes more resistant to downtime, censorship, and disruptions caused by failures in one location. This can support the speed and reliability required for innovation.
Furthermore, the decentralized nature of Walrus can contribute to a more open and collaborative AI ecosystem. Developers, researchers, and organizations can build systems that interact with shared datasets without relying entirely on centralized data silos. In a world where AI capabilities increasingly shape the future of productivity, creativity, research, and automation, storage infrastructure that supports accessibility and resilience becomes a critical foundation.
3. A Decentralized Internet and Web Infrastructure
As the internet continues transitioning toward a future that is more decentralized, Walrus is positioned to provide the flexible infrastructure developers need to build websites and digital services that do not depend on major centralized providers. Today, most websites and digital platforms rely on large technology companies for hosting, storage, and content delivery. While these providers are powerful and convenient, they also introduce risks such as censorship, service restrictions, policy changes, or unexpected downtime.
Walrus can serve as an alternative foundation for developers who want to build independent websites that are not dependent on a small number of large corporations. This can help accelerate the development of a more open and user-owned internet, where the underlying infrastructure is distributed, transparent, and less vulnerable to centralized control.
In addition, Walrus can function as a robust archival solution capable of storing blockchain history and rollup data(7). This use case is especially important as blockchain ecosystems grow and the volume of data produced by decentralized networks expands rapidly. Storing historical blockchain information in a reliable format is essential for transparency, auditing, and long-term verification.
Walrus can also support the storage of rollup data, providing a decentralized alternative for maintaining transparent, tamper-proof transaction records. Instead of relying on centralized storage systems to hold critical historical data, Walrus offers a system that enhances trust through decentralization. This contributes to the broader goal of ensuring that blockchain-based records remain open, accessible, and difficult to falsify.
Future Direction
The potential use cases for decentralized storage are enormous and continue to expand as the digital world grows. Decentralized storage is not simply a convenience—it is increasingly becoming an essential piece of infrastructure for the modern internet and next-generation digital systems.
Walrus supports a wide range of use cases, from storing large media files such as images and videos, to storing rollup data that improves blockchain scalability. As more systems generate massive volumes of information, the importance of storage solutions that can scale efficiently while remaining reliable becomes even greater. For this reason, decentralized storage is widely regarded as a critical component of the future.
As the internet continues evolving toward increasingly decentralized models, Walrus aims to become a foundational platform for this new generation of the web. Its long-term mission is to deliver storage solutions that are not only secure, but also fast, flexible, and accessible for developers and users alike. By helping address the growing demand for decentralized infrastructure, Walrus positions itself as a key building block for the future of the internet, blockchain ecosystems, and data-driven innovation.
Notes:
(1) Single point of failure: A concept in system design referring to a component that, if it fails, may cause the entire system to stop functioning.
(2) Blob: Binary Large Object data blocks—files without a fixed structure such as images, audio, video, text documents, and other media.
(3) Proof of Availability: A concept in blockchain technology used to verify that data has been securely stored and can be retrieved across the network.
(4) Delegated Proof-of-Stake: A blockchain consensus mechanism in which network participants vote to elect representatives who validate the next block.
(5) Sybil behavior: The act of creating multiple fake identities within a network to manipulate the system, such as through fraudulent voting or coordinated attacks.
(6) Staking: The act of locking a certain amount of cryptocurrency for a period of time to earn rewards while contributing to securing and operating a blockchain network.
(7) Rollup: A blockchain scaling solution that processes large volumes of transactions off the main chain, then submits only aggregated data (a “rollup”) to the main chain to improve speed and reduce transaction fees.
