The Walrus Network is an decentralized storage solution that rewards true interaction, and it is built on top of the Sui blockchain. At the root of the Walrus Network is the WAL token, which is actually much more than just a unit of account. The mechanism of rewarding in the storage solution is structured in a way that reveals its emphasis on longer-term engagement with the solution, rather than just a hype or speculation.
In line with these philosophies, Walrus has split its overall token supply of 5 billion WAL as follows. More than 60 percent of all tokens go towards community-oriented uses such as airdrops, subsidies, and other types of grants. This is aimed at rewarding those that benefit or protect a network rather than simply holding onto its assets. A portion of this allocation towards community use – approximately 10 percent overall – took place through a user drop that rewarded adopters around the onset of its mainnet launch. These allocations took place in stages. Some WAL were awarded before its mainnet launch while other allocations took place as its ecosystem grew.
One of the ways participants can earn rewards on Walrus is through staking. Staking is essentially locking up WAL tokens to secure the network. According to the Walrus Delegated Proof-of-Stake system, participants can choose to stake their WAL tokens as storage nodes or delegate the staking of their WAL to trusted node operators. Once the stakes have been placed, the participants contributing the stakes get to secure the network and authenticate any storage that happens on Walrus. They get rewarded for their contribution in the form of system revenues, which could come directly when a user seeks to rent storage space on Walrus. The user has to pay WAL tokens for the space upfront. These tokens pay the storage nodes that contain the user’s data over time.
Walrus similarly relies on economic incentives to promote good behaviour and deter bad behaviour in storage providers. This is in part due to what is referred to as a “slashing” system. In this concept of slashing, if a node happens to misperform its role as a node , for example, by going offline or by not being able to prove that they are storing information properly in the form that they are storing it – a part of their stake tokens can be slashed as a punishment. The concept of slashed is straightforward: nodes that act well will keep earning rewards; nodes that act badly would see the end result of their stake decrease. Both forces are needed to maintain a good network.
Apart from staking and contributing to node validation, Walrus has been involved in educational and engagement initiatives aimed at involving more individuals in the ecosystem. There are exchanges that offer ‘Learn and Earn’ initiatives where one can acquire WAL in exchange for educational quizzes and courses on the network. Individuals that participate in such initiatives were eligible for token tickets that could be redeemed in the future for WAL.
There is another incentive scheme called the community reserve that promotes grants, hackathons, and developer programs. The community reserve aims to facilitate projects that will develop the Walrus ecosystem. Developers who develop tools and services related to Walrus storage can get grants from the community reserve.
