New Member of Sui Ecosystem Walrus: Innovative Solution for Decentralization Storage

After the launch of the computation layer AO by the decentralized storage network Arweave, it successfully triggered an increase in ecological enthusiasm and coin prices. As a general-purpose computing chain, Sui has launched the decentralized storage network Walrus, which will also create a new wave.

Background Introduction

team

Walrus is the latest product from Mysten Labs, the development company behind Sui, classified as "protocol, platform". Most of the founders and employees of Mysten Labs come from Meta (formerly Facebook) and the now-defunct blockchain project Diem. The English meaning of Walrus is "walrus", and its official website emphasizes characteristics like "thriving like a walrus" and "adaptable like a walrus", reflecting the reliability and usability of the protocol as a storage system.

and the relationship with Sui

Walrus is built on Sui and utilizes Sui to coordinate the sale of storage space and metadata. However, using Walrus does not require building applications or products on Sui. Walrus will introduce a brand new governance token WAL as a functional token, rather than using SUI.

Competitive Analysis

Decentralization storage protocols are mainly divided into two categories:

1. Complete replication system: such as Filecoin and Arweave. The advantage is that there are complete files on the storage nodes, allowing easy access and migration of files even if some nodes go offline. The disadvantage is that it requires a large number of storage copies, increasing storage costs.

2. Systems using Reed-Solomon (RS) coding: The file is split into smaller chunks, and as long as the total size exceeds the original file, it can be decoded. The drawback is that the encoding and decoding processes are computationally expensive, limiting the file size and the number of participating nodes.

Challenges in Storage

Existing decentralized storage systems face two main challenges:

1. A continuous challenge mechanism is needed to ensure that storage nodes retain data, which limits the scalability of the system.

2. Storage nodes need to coordinate, including managing system participants, file storage costs, incentive mechanisms, etc., which leads to the implementation of custom blockchains and the introduction of cryptocurrencies.

Core Innovation

Walrus quickly encodes unstructured data blocks into small shards using innovative erasure coding technology, distributing them across a node network. Even if up to two-thirds of the shards are lost, the original data can be quickly reconstructed. This method keeps the replication factor between 4 to 5 times, comparable to existing cloud services, while maintaining Decentralization and stronger fault tolerance.

The core innovations of Walrus include:

1. RedStuff: A new 2D encoding algorithm designed for Byzantine fault tolerance, based on fountain codes, combining fast operations and high reliability.

2. Asynchronous Storage Proof: Achieved through 2D encoding, with a total replication factor of less than 5 times.

3. Efficient Committee Reconfiguration Protocol: Addressing the natural attrition of storage nodes to ensure continuous data availability.

4. Asynchronous Challenge Protocol: Verifies whether nodes correctly store data, with costs expanding logarithmically with the number of stored files.

5. Staking-based economic model: combining reward and penalty mechanisms.

These innovations make Walrus a scalable, resilient, and economically viable Decentralization storage solution. Sui, as the control layer of Walrus, provides a scalable, programmable, and secure infrastructure, allowing Walrus to focus on solving the core issues of Decentralization storage.

Future Outlook

Walrus plans to launch an independent token, WAL, for functions such as staking and governance. Potential airdrop opportunities may include holding SUI tokens. Walrus is set to launch its testnet, with the mainnet launch date yet to be determined. Currently, developers can refer to the official documentation to learn how to use Walrus to deploy their own site.

With the development of Walrus, the Sui ecosystem will gain significant advantages in the field of Decentralization storage, providing stronger and more flexible infrastructure support for future Web3 applications.