Walrus is a decentralized storage network that works alongside blockchain smart contracts rather than replacing them. They solve different problems and naturally complement each other.
Smart contracts on blockchains like Sui excel at storing small amounts of critical data and executing code trustlessly. They're perfect for account balances, ownership records, and transaction logic. But storing large files directly on-chain is prohibitively expensive and inefficient because blockchains simply aren't built for that kind of workload.
Walrus handles the storage of large blobs like images, videos, documents, and datasets cheaply and efficiently. It uses erasure coding to split data into fragments stored across many nodes, so files remain accessible even if many nodes go offline.
The typical pattern is that smart contracts store a cryptographic commitment, like a hash or blob ID, pointing to data stored in Walrus. The smart contract handles ownership, permissions, and logic, while Walrus handles the actual bytes. Think of an NFT smart contract storing metadata and a Walrus blob ID for the artwork, or a DAO storing governance documents in Walrus and referencing them on-chain. Gaming applications might store assets, maps, or user-generated content in Walrus while keeping game state on-chain.
The fundamental insight is that blockchains provide trust and execution guarantees but are terrible at bulk storage. Walrus provides cheap, reliable storage but doesn't execute logic. Together, they enable applications that need both computational integrity and large data availability, something neither can do well alone. This complementary relationship is why Walrus is often called storage infrastructure for Web3 rather than a blockchain competitor. @Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL