Have you ever wondered why so many NFT projects, AI applications, and on-chain games struggle with data storage? The simplest approach is to use centralized cloud services like AWS or Alibaba Cloud, but the problems follow — exorbitant costs, questionable security, and the risk of being shut down without warning. There's a project in the Sui ecosystem called Walrus that tackles exactly this issue: building a decentralized file storage system that completely changes the game.

From a technical perspective, Walrus uses an erasure coding solution. Simply put, it breaks your files into chunks and distributes them across multiple nodes in the network. Even if some nodes go down or malfunction, the system can fully restore your data. With just 4 to 5 times redundancy backup, it ensures absolute reliability. Compared to other decentralized storage projects, this approach can reduce costs by over 80% while maintaining speed.

What's even more interesting is that Walrus supports programmable storage. Data can directly interact with on-chain smart contracts — you can set who can access it, when to update versions, and even let data earn yields through contract logic. This opens up possibilities for NFTs, AI models, identity systems, and other applications.

Since mainnet launch in March this year, Walrus's growth has been remarkable. Major projects like Pudgy Penguins use it to store high-resolution NFT images, AI training teams use it to manage massive datasets, and identity verification tools have also integrated it. It has now attracted over a hundred projects for deployment.

Behind this is Mysten Labs, the founding team of Sui, with a stellar funding lineup including top-tier VCs like a16z. According to their roadmap, by 2026 they plan to support mainstream chains like Ethereum and Solana, while deeply entering the AI field, making Walrus a true Web3 data infrastructure.