Source: Four Pillars, Compiled by: Jinse Finance xiaozou
Mysten Labs co-founder Kostas Kryptos recently stated: "Walrus is the most modern decentralized hard drive."
Walrus is a decentralized storage protocol in the Sui ecosystem. In this article, we will explore the differences between this protocol and other existing storage protocols.
Key Points:
Mysten Labs has successfully launched Sui Network and DeepBook Protocol in the market and is now preparing a new initiative - the Walrus Protocol.
Although the decentralized storage market already has many protocols, Walrus is still highly regarded, mainly for two reasons: 1) its cost-effectiveness and security far exceed existing storage solutions; 2) through the Sui Network, the stored data can be made programmable.
Walrus is considered the most advanced project among existing decentralized storage protocols, and its future utility and value will be closely watched.
1. Background Introduction - Why Walrus? Why Now?
After the successful launch of Sui Network and Deepbook protocol, Mysten Labs is now entering a new field through Walrus. The success of Sui Network and Deepbook has raised great expectations for Walrus. However, despite the market's keen interest in the Walrus protocol, there are still doubts about it.
These doubts stem from a few points: the decentralized storage market is already saturated, many existing solutions have performed poorly, and the market is concerned about resource allocation issues - in particular, whether Mysten Labs is diverting resources from the continued development and expansion of Sui Network due to the new project.
Therefore, we will delve into the structure of the Walrus protocol, analyze its differences from existing decentralized storage solutions, and study the relationship between Walrus and Sui Network, focusing on how Walrus integrates with Sui's architecture and enhances the Sui ecosystem.
1.1 Differences between Walrus and Existing Storage Solutions
To understand the necessity of Walrus, we first need to discuss its differences from existing decentralized distributed storage solutions. From my perspective, Walrus has three significant differences from the existing storage models (especially Filecoin and Arweave):
1.1.1 Storage Cost-Efficiency
First, there are significant differences in storage costs between Walrus, Arweave, and Filecoin. As mentioned in the Four Pillars article on Walrus, Arweave requires all nodes to replicate and store all data, while Filecoin allows users to decide the number of nodes to store their data (users can choose to have their data stored by a single miner, or distribute 100 copies across 100 different miners. Naturally, the more miners requested to store the data, the higher the cost).
In contrast, Walrus uses Reed-Stuff Encoding, which is significantly less costly than Arweave and Filecoin, with an efficiency up to 100 times higher (compared to Arweave, the latter requires full network storage, resulting in replication costs up to 500 times higher, while Walrus only requires 4-5 times replication to maintain high efficiency). The probability of data loss is also significantly reduced.
In short, Walrus solves the shortcomings of Arweave and Filecoin. Arweave has a low probability of data loss but high replication costs, while Filecoin provides relatively economical storage based on user needs, but low-cost options may result in a higher risk of data loss. Walrus combines the advantages of both, maintaining low replication costs while minimizing the probability of data loss.
Furthermore, as the number of nodes increases, the cost of Arweave grows linearly, as all nodes/specified nodes must store a complete data copy. In contrast, Walrus only requires a single network data transfer, with each node storing a portion of the data, and as the network expands, the burden on individual nodes actually decreases. This structural difference makes Walrus significantly more cost-efficient in storage than Arweave and Filecoin.
1.1.2 Programmability
Although Walrus is more efficient than Arweave and Filecoin, the most significant difference between it and the existing storage models is "programmability". Traditional storage serves only as a simple data repository, while Walrus, through the Sui Network, achieves programmable decentralized storage, making its functionality go beyond basic data storage.
What if smart contracts could directly reference or trigger data stored in decentralized storage? For example, when minting NFTs, the image file could be stored in Walrus and a blob data object created for it on the Sui Network, linking it to the NFT object. This solves the criticism of traditional NFTs being "incomplete" (i.e., the token is on-chain, but the NFT art metadata is stored off-chain), making NFTs through Walrus true Web3 assets.
To give another example directly related to data storage, since Walrus blobs can be stored as Sui objects and controlled through Sui's Move smart contracts, the smart contracts can transfer the stored data to other users or automatically change ownership. This is why we say the data in Walrus is programmable.
In comparison, Arweave and Filecoin have limited or almost no dynamic integration with on-chain applications. Although Filecoin has added some smart contract functionality through the FVM (Filecoin Virtual Machine), the ability to modify and control data is still limited, making Walrus significantly more programmable than the two.
1.1.3 Data Access and Deletion
A characteristic of existing storage protocols is that once data is uploaded, anyone can access it, and it cannot be deleted. While this feature may be useful for individual users, it poses significant limitations for institutions and businesses that need to store sensitive data or modify/delete data as needed. In contrast, Walrus allows users to dispose of or modify their data when necessary (which is completely different from Arweave, where data cannot be deleted or modified; and different from Filecoin, where data deletion is not due to user intent, but because the contract has expired or the nodes storing the user's data have gone offline and no longer exist in the network).
Some may be concerned that this conflicts with the immutability principle of blockchains, but it should be remembered that only the blob data is deleted in Walrus. Independent of the blob data deletion, the transaction data maintains its immutability, and the deletion of blob data does not affect the integrity of the blockchain.
Compared to traditional storage, the increased utility of Walrus enhances its adoption potential in traditional enterprises and Web2 businesses, and its multi-functionality is highly anticipated in the future.
1.2 Synergy between Walrus and Sui Network
After discussing the differences between Walrus and existing storage protocols, let's now examine the relationship between Walrus and Sui Network. When Mysten Labs announced the development of the Walrus protocol, many held a critical attitude, questioning "should they focus on Sui instead of creating another protocol?" However, with a basic understanding of how Walrus operates, it becomes clear that Walrus does not distract from Sui, but should be viewed as a storage stack built to enhance applications on Sui. In other words, Walrus not only complements the Sui Network from a storage perspective, but also has a positive impact on the Sui Network's governance token, SUI, making the two inseparable. Let's explore this in more detail.
1.2.1 Symbiotic Relationship between Sui and Walrus
Here is the English translation:In fact, Mysten Labs had major concerns about the maintenance and management of storage during the initial design phase of Sui. This is because as usage increases, the state of the blockchain will inevitably grow, which may ultimately lead to increased transaction fees for future Sui Network users. Therefore, from the early design stage of Sui, Mysten Labs introduced the unique concept of a storage fund to address the storage challenges of Sui.
The operation of the Sui storage fund is as follows: The fees submitted by users to Sui validators are divided into 1) gas fees related to computation and 2) storage costs for data storage. Sui pre-collects the storage costs for permanent data storage from users and pools these funds into the storage fund. The storage fund continuously redistributes the accumulated amount to the validators as long as the data remains stored on the chain. Furthermore, if users delete the data, they can receive a refund of the storage costs.
Sui's unique on-chain data storage system has produced two results:
1) Users can receive a storage cost rebate when deleting on-chain data, creating an economic incentive to reduce the distributed ledger capacity.
2) The system solves the sustainability issues related to storage by pre-collecting storage fees and using them as future incentives for validators.
Although Sui has solved the sustainability issue through this unique structure, the burden of storing large blob data (such as media files) on-chain is still heavy. This is where Walrus comes into play - by storing large blob data through Walrus, while objectifying the blob's metadata on Sui for control, the data can be made programmable without being directly stored on Sui.
Furthermore, through Sui, Walrus has achieved the most significant feature compared to other storage protocols, which is that the stored data is programmable and controllable. Ultimately, Sui and Walrus form a symbiotic relationship, creating unique advantages and complementing each other's limitations.
1.2.2 Walrus Makes the SUI Token a Deflationary Asset
As the storage fund example shows, the Sui Network requires the payment of a certain amount of Sui tokens as the storage cost for storing any object. Walrus is no exception. When creating blob data objects in Walrus, a proportional amount of Sui tokens will be locked in the storage fund.
Although a portion of the fees can be refunded upon data deletion, a portion of the fees is burned through the permanent removal of circulating tokens. In other words, the more data stored through Walrus, the more Sui tokens will be permanently locked in the storage fund, forming a virtuous cycle where the increase in Walrus usage leads to a decrease in Sui supply.
In summary, the emergence of Walrus is good news for the Sui Network, both from a network and asset perspective, and the Sui ecosystem is expected to diversify further through Walrus.
2. Conclusion - Walrus Will Become the Most Critical Protocol for Sui
2.1 Mysten Labs Is Not Just Building a Blockchain
When Mysten Labs was first established, I thought it was just a company focused on the Sui Network. However, after witnessing the launch of services like Deepbook and Sui Naming Service, I started to ponder what Mysten Labs' vision is. When I encountered Walrus, I concluded that their goal is to build a complete Web3 decentralized infrastructure.
Mysten Labs has a different time horizon when looking at this industry compared to other companies. They are not just issuing tokens, creating hype, and dumping; instead, they have a vision to lead innovation in all areas, including execution, storage, consensus, and communication, while understanding the inertia of users accustomed to Web2 services and building the most suitable user interfaces for them.
Execution and consensus are handled by the Sui Network (through initiatives like Mysticeti and Pilotfish & Remora that continue to evolve), storage is handled by Walrus, communication is handled by SCION (a next-generation internet architecture known for protecting network packets from DDoS and routing attacks - note that SCION is not created by Mysten Labs, but is mentioned as it will be applied to the Sui Network), and the user interfaces familiar to Web2 users are managed by zkLogin, Stashed, SEAL, and KELP.
If all these initiatives can take root successfully, I believe Mysten Labs can rewrite the existing Web3 paradigm. My initial thoughts were limited. Mysten Labs is not just trying to build a blockchain - they are a team building infrastructure for a new network. Of course, I believe Sui is the core of Mysten Labs' vision, with the other initiatives playing complementary roles. Walrus is one of them, and in my view, it may be the most important protocol among them.
2.2 Walrus Is Not Limited to the Sui Ecosystem
However, Walrus is not limited to the Sui ecosystem. Like other storage protocols, Walrus can be used by any third party outside of Sui applications, and it may even become a useful alternative to existing storage protocols or other DA layers (such as Celestia, EigenDA, Avail).
This extensibility of Walrus expands the demand for Sui tokens beyond the scope of the Sui Network. When Walrus is used, objects will be created on the Sui Network, leading to a reduction in Sui supply. In other words, Walrus has the potential to make the Sui token a more attractive asset by creating external demand (this is not investment advice, but a structurally possible scenario). Therefore, Walrus is expected to become a bridge for the multi-directional expansion of Sui.
2.3 Can Walrus Surpass Filecoin?
While comparing the value of specific protocols is a delicate matter, I am very optimistic about the future of Walrus because: 1) its operating mechanism is far more efficient than existing storage protocols; 2) it can perform tasks that current storage protocols cannot (becoming a DA or making stored data programmable); and 3) it already has a solid network and user base through the Sui Network.
If Walrus not only becomes the storage layer for the Sui Network, but also becomes the representative storage protocol for Web3 as Mysten Labs envisions, it has the potential to become the leading protocol in the storage domain.
