When I think about decentralization I have learned that I should not stop at the number of nodes. Having a thousand nodes in one data center is not really decentralization. It is a single point of failure that sounds better. What really makes something resilient is where things are located. Decentralization is about having things in parts of the world on different networks in different countries and with different types of infrastructure. Decentralization is about being spread out. Walrus seems to understand this difference. The way they distribute things across different areas shows that they are being practical rather than just following an idea. Decentralization is important, to Walrus. They are doing it in a way that makes sense.
Geography is really important. It matters a lot. The thing is, people do not think about geography much. They think it is about learning the names of countries and cities.. Geography is more than that.
Geography matters because it helps us understand how the world works. It is about how people live and interact with their environment. Geography is also about how we use the land and the resources we have.
For example geography can help us understand why some places are poor and some places are rich. It can help us understand why some places have a lot of food and some places do not have food. Geography matters because it helps us make sense of the world.
So geography is not just about learning the names of countries and cities. It is, about understanding how the world works and how we can make it a better place. Geography matters more than it sounds.
Storage networks often fail in groups. Things like power going out rules being enforced problems with the network and even things like earthquakes and hurricanes usually affect an area, not just one machine. When all the storage nodes are in one place having extra nodes does not really help because Storage networks are still, at risk. Storage networks need to be spread out so that if something happens to one area the other Storage networks can still work.
The #Walrus system thinks that having nodes in different places is very important for it to work well. This is not a good idea it is something that the Walrus system really needs. The way the Walrus protocol is set up is that it rewards people for putting nodes in regions. This helps the whole Walrus network work better. It also helps the people who run the nodes. The Walrus protocol is designed to make sure that the Walrus network is healthy and that the people who run the nodes, on the Walrus network do well.
Rewarding Useful Redundancy, Not Just More Nodes
I noticed that Walrus does something interesting with its design. Walrus does not automatically reward you for repeating things over. For example if you store the thing in many different places in the same area it does not really help make your data safer. Storing the blob in many nodes in the same region, with Walrus just does not make a big difference when it comes to keeping your data safe. This is what I mean by Walrus not rewarding redundancy blindly when you are working with the blob.
The system actually likes to spread things out. It tries to put parts of the data in different places so that they are not all in one spot. This means that the data is stored on nodes that are not connected in ways like on different networks or in different areas. The nodes that help make the system more diverse are more important, than the ones that just add space to store the data. The protocol favors this way of distributing the data because it makes the system stronger. The protocol likes distribution- allocation.
This small change helps to stop people from gathering in one place without making rules. It prevents clustering from happening without being too harsh. The subtle shift is good because it discourages clustering.
Economic Signals Embedded in WAL Staking
WAL staking is important in this situation. Storage providers have to put up an amount of WAL stake based on how much storage they are offering. The rewards they get depend on how useful the storage providersre to the WAL staking network. This means that the useful the storage providers are, to the WAL staking network the more rewards they will get from the WAL staking system.
Nodes that work in areas where they are really needed tend to get deals when it comes to storing things. This is because they help make the system more reliable. Over time these nodes can expect to get rewards than nodes that add storage in areas that already have enough. Nodes, like these are important because they make the system work better.
I think this way of doing things is really nice because it does not need some person or group to make sure everyone is following the rules. The protocol does not have to check where people are physically. It just needs to see that the network is working in a way that is good for everyone and that people are connecting to it from lots of different places. This is what I like about this approach, to the protocol it is a way to make sure the network is diverse.
Latency and Availability as Measurable Inputs
The way things are spread out around the world is not about how far apart they are. It is also about how easy it's to get to them. Walrus checks how well things are working in parts of the network like how long it takes to get a response and if it is working all the time. The parts of the network that make it easier for people to get to things from over the world become more important. Walrus looks at things, like latency and availability to figure this out.
This is what happens over time. It is like a circle. Operators in areas see that they are using things better so they think it is a good idea to keep the infrastructure in those places. On the hand operators in crowded areas do not get as much back so they think it is better to move out to new areas instead of staying in the same old place. This makes operators in regions and operators in crowded regions make different decisions about infrastructure. Operators, in regions want to keep the infrastructure and operators in crowded regions want to expand to new areas.
Incentive design is doing some practical work. It is the kind of work that incentive design does every day. Incentive design is really good, at this kind of practical work.
Jurisdictional Independence Without Explicit Rules
I really like that Walrus does not set rules for different areas. Walrus does not have limits, for each country. Require people to approve things manually. What happens is that people are free to make their choices because of economic preference. This means that independence is something that happens naturally with Walrus.
The protocol spreads storage across legal and network environments. This means the protocol reduces exposure to shutdowns or policy changes in these storage environments. The protocol does this without needing to figure out what kind of laws or rules are in place for each storage environment. It does not need to classify or label these jurisdictions directly. This is a thing because it keeps the system neutral and able to adapt to different storage environments and situations. The protocol is like a system that can work with many different types of storage environments. The protocol reduces exposure to shutdowns or policy changes, in the storage environments.
A system that helps things get shared out over a time. This system is good for making sure that people can get what they need for a time. The system is designed to encourage people to share things with each other over a period of time. A system like this is very good, for a long-term distribution of things.
The geographic distribution of something is not something that you can just do one time. You have to keep working on it as the network gets bigger. The way Walrus gives incentives changes all the time so the place to run a Walrus node today might not be the best place to run a Walrus node in a year.
This stops things from getting stale. Operators are told to think about the future not just put things where it's cheapest right now. When we look at the network this makes sure that we have types of things in different places and this is based on what could actually go wrong not what we thought might go wrong in the past. This helps the network and the operators, like the operators of the network to think about the risk of the network.
@Walrus 🦭/acc does a good job of getting people to store things in different places around the world. It does not do this by making a lot of rules that everyone has to follow. Instead Walrus uses rewards to encourage people to do things that help make the system stronger. For example Walrus rewards people who store things in locations or who use different networks or who access things in different ways. This helps Walrus get storage providers to spread out around the world, which makes the system more reliable. Walrus really helps with this by giving rewards to people who make the system stronger which's a good thing, for Walrus.
For me, this is a sign of mature system design. Decentralization isn’t enforced with checklists; it emerges from incentives that make the resilient choice the rational one.
