#walrus To be honest, my interest in the
@Walrus 🦭/acc project purely stems from my understanding of the 'obsessive-compulsive disorder' of the folks at Mysten Labs. Since the Sui mainnet went live, everyone should have noticed that these engineers, who came from Facebook (Meta), are not just launching a chain; they are replicating the 'cloud service suite' of the Web2 era.
$WAL #walrus #Walru #WalrusProtocol #Walrus_Expoler I've been pondering one thing: why is Sui so insistent on the Move language? It wasn't until Walrus came out (especially in the six months leading up to the 2025 mainnet launch) that this puzzle truly fell into place. Today, let's not discuss those vague 'decentralization ideals'; instead, from the perspective of a product manager and architect, let's analyze what Walrus really aims to do.
Isn't this just the Web3 version of AWS S3? If you're not into tech, you might think the storage track is just the old story of Filecoin (FIL) or Arweave (AR). But Mysten Labs' ambitions are clearly much greater. Think about how AWS (Amazon Web Services) monopolizes the internet? With EC2 (computation) in the left hand and S3 (storage) in the right hand. Sui is like EC2, responsible for high-performance computation and asset processing; while Walrus is like S3, responsible for throwing that pile of 'big and bulky' data (images, videos, AI model weights). One point that retail investors easily overlook is: before Walrus, when we issued an NFT on Sui, the image actually existed on IPFS or even centralized servers, with only a link stored on the chain. If the server goes down, your NFT turns into a broken image. But with the emergence of Walrus, Mysten Labs has truly achieved a 'full-stack closed loop.'
Dimensionality reduction' of the Move language This is the most attractive technical point in my opinion, and something other storage projects cannot learn. On Walrus, the stored data is no longer cold, hard files; it is abstracted into 'objects' on Sui. What does this mean? For developers, a 1GB game video stored in Walrus can not only be read in code but can also be programmed, transferred, and manipulated through smart contracts just like a transaction. It's like in Web2, you can only download files; but in the Web3 Walrus+Sui system, you can directly treat 'files' as 'assets' running on the chain. This is a fundamental level of dimensionality reduction for the chain games, dynamic NFTs, and even future AI Agents we want to play with.
Sense of security and reliability There's no need to elaborate on the team background; Mysten Labs is essentially the parent of Sui, and this group is known for their code cleanliness in the circle. I looked at their white paper (although a bit obscure), the core Erasure Coding technology simply means cutting files into pieces and throwing them on different nodes; even if a large number of nodes go down, the data can still be restored. This is much more space-efficient than simple backups (Replication), and naturally, the cost comes down. For small investors like us who worry about 'project parties running away, servers unplugging', this kind of foundational technology gives a stronger sense of security than any endorsement
Tokens and 'unlock anxiety' Let's talk about the
$WAL that everyone is most concerned about. In terms of model design, it serves both as the payment currency for storage fees and as the staking asset for nodes. But I must complain that the unlocking period of this token is indeed a bit long. The early circulation control is okay, but in the long run, there is pressure from community and ecosystem fund releases. However, it’s good that it has introduced the concept of 'futures' for storage resources. If you are optimistic about future storage demands (especially after the explosion of AI), the current price logic makes sense.
The advantages and disadvantages are very obvious. The advantage is the 'favorite child' treatment; almost all DApps in the Sui ecosystem will mindlessly integrate Walrus, this kind of native integration is something Filecoin envies. The disadvantage is also very obvious, it relies too much on the Sui ecosystem. Although the official says it supports multiple chains, currently, most of the traffic and assets are still on Sui. If Sui fails, Walrus will find it hard to stand on its own
What do you think about the future? The current Web3 is becoming heavier and heavier, with front-end webpages, AI models, and full-chain games, the data volume is growing exponentially. The 'programmable storage' track that Walrus is positioning itself in currently has no particularly strong competitors. For us retail investors, if we believe Sui can enter the top five, then Walrus is a must-have 'Beta return'.
Personal operation suggestion The current price (compared to ATH has dropped quite a bit) I think has entered the 'hitting zone'. Don't expect it to double in a day like MEME coins, this thing is infrastructure, following a 'slow bull' logic. I will treat it as early infrastructure of Ethereum to invest in, allocate a position, hold it for a year or two, betting on the day when Web3 applications explode
Finally, one last thing, don't be scared away by short-term K lines. Understanding the logic and holding onto your chips is the way to make money in this cycle.