When I first looked at Walrus, what struck me was how obvious the problem felt once someone pointed it out: blockchains handle transactions great, but they never had a real plan for large data. Most decentralized apps still rely on centralized servers or expensive third-party storage, which defeats the purpose of decentralization and puts valuable files at risk of censorship or failure. Walrus saw that blind spot and built a dedicated layer on top of the Sui blockchain to fix it in a way that’s both practical and integrated into the ecosystem.
Walrus doesn’t store every file in one place. It uses an advanced data encoding system called Red Stuff to break large files into pieces and spread them across many independent storage nodes. If some nodes go offline, the file can still be rebuilt. This means cost stays reasonable and data stays available even if parts of the network fail. Metadata and proof of availability live onchain, giving developers and users confidence that their data is still there without needing to download the whole thing. That shift from trusting a single server to trusting a decentralized protocol feels like how real Web3 storage should work.
