Recently, I have been deeply exploring the core projects of the Sui ecosystem, and the name Walrus Protocol deserves more attention. Since its mainnet launch less than a year ago, it has already handled over 800+TB of encoded data, supported the development of hundreds of projects, and even attracted traditional financial institutions like Grayscale to launch trust products. This level of recognition itself says a lot.

What truly impresses developers is the recently released Quilt feature—this tool solves the most annoying small file problem in Web3 storage. It eliminates the need for manual packaging and merging; up to 660 small files can be integrated with a single click, and the key point is that the cost is directly reduced by 420 times. You can calculate how the storage cost of a 10KB file has dropped from one level to another. Even more impressive is that it supports individual access, without unlocking everything, which is a real liberation for storage needs of NFT projects and AI datasets.

The underlying erasure coding technology reduces storage costs to around $50/TB/year. Compared to the mainstream price of Filecoin, it is 75% cheaper. This price advantage combined with the product experience makes it hard to imagine there is no market.

From a token perspective, WAL not only bears the storage consumption and node staking destruction mechanism but also has governance voting rights. The deflationary model, coupled with real-world demand, provides dual support. Currently, the ecosystem has already accumulated practical application projects such as health data, AI agents, and prediction markets. By 2026, when the deep integration with Sui is fully formed, the growth potential is worth looking forward to.