Cloud storage service providers have been the centralized internet storage providers over a decade. Almost everything that we use today is powered by these systems such as social media and enterprise software. They are quick, convenient and not new.
However, the emergence of Web3 that is more decentralized, sovereign, and minimizes trust is revealing one especially harsh truth:
The use of traditional cloud storage did not allow in decentralized systems.
That is where Walrus comes to the discussion not as an alternative to blockchains, but as a new storage primitive created with the Web3 in mind.
The Issue with a traditional cloud storage.
The centralized cloud storage can be useful in Web2, but gives severe contradictions in Web3:
Centralized Trust You have to have faith in one provider that it will not censor, delete, or alter data. This compromises the essence of the idea of decentralization.
Single Points of Failure Outages, hacks, or policy changes can also place entire applications offline, which is something Web3 is intended to prevent.
Not Programmable Cloud storage is not Programmable. It stores data, however, it does not comprehend on-chain logic and smart contracts or crypto-economic incentives.
Weak Economic Alignment Users offer payments to providers, but do not give them a protocol level commitment to act honestly outside of legal contracts.
To put it briefly, Web2 storage forms Web3 bottlenecks.
What Makes Walrus Different?
Walrus is a proposal of a programmable, decentralized storage, a model that supports crypto-native applications.
Walrus does not rely on a single company, but provides the data in a network of independent storage providers that are at stake with economic incentives and cryptography.
Key differences include:
Decentralization by Design
Walrus eradicates central control. No particular party possesses the data and has the right to access it solely. This stores storage at the same level of trust as blockchains.
Programmable Storage
Walrus storage is not just another traditional cloud service that allows it to be connected to smart contracts and decentralized applications.
This enables:
Checking of stored information on-chain.
Automated storage rules
Guarantees of the protocols rather than the law.
Storage is not a passive Web3 logic, but an active part.
Cryptocurrency Economic Security through $WAL.
The incentive system of Walrus is based on the use of the $WAL token.
$WAL is used to:
Storage and retrieval fee.
Bribe honest storage companies.
Punish untrustworthy or wicked conduct.
align network sustainability on long-term basis.
The higher the amount of data stored on Walrus, the higher the utility demand on $WAL, which is directly related to the adoption, which is entirely absent in the conventional cloud models.
Data Availability Censorship Resistance.
NFTs, AI models, DePIN, gaming, social protocols, are web3 applications that require persistent data. Walrus provides the assurance that after data storage, one can access the data without using a centralized permission.
Why Web3 Needs This New Model
Blockchains work very well in terms of consensus and execution, but are very poor regarding storage of large volumes of data. Walrus complements do not compete with blockchains.
This b lock-in strategy permits:
Rapid and less expensive blockchains.
More expressive dApps
The actual end-to-end decentralization.
Web3 is not scalable using Web2 storage. Decentralization needs decentralization of infrastructure on all levels.
The old-fashion cloud storage is not bad, it is just not Web3-friendly.
Whereas Walrus symbolizes a translocation of:
Trust - verification
Unified contracts - crypto-economic incentives.
Passive storage - programmable infrastructure.
Storage will cease being an afterthought of the decentralized applications maturing. It shall be a fundamental protocol layer.
And that is what is being constructed by @Walrus 🦭/acc .$WAL #walrus
