Many tokens issued by crypto projects look quite decent, often claiming governance rights or promising dividends. But what’s the reality? Most of them end up as decorations, with holders holding them for little practical use. Walrus’s WAL takes a different path.

Rather than being just a governance token, it’s better described as the "fuel" for the entire system. It’s needed for on-chain data storage, data retrieval, generating usability proofs, and node staking. Every step of the core business process directly involves the consumption or locking of WAL, meaning the more frequently it’s used, the more genuine and harder to manipulate the demand becomes.

What’s interesting about this design is— it completely ties the token’s value to "actual application." It doesn’t rely on hype stories or hollow promises, but on the natural behavior of users interacting with the network to drive circulation and destruction. As content explodes, read/write frequency increases, and long-term storage needs grow, the token’s liquidity and consumption also rise. This isn’t market manipulation; it’s the natural operation of supply and demand.

For developers and users, the benefits are quite tangible: a clear and predictable cost structure, system sustainability, and a straightforward "pay for what you use" logic. For pure speculators, short-term price pumps are hard to sustain because the fundamental support must come from real traffic.

The key turning point is when the application reaches scale. Once content generation surges, user numbers explode, and storage demands expand, WAL shifts from being "optional" to "absolutely necessary." At that moment, the power of this design becomes evident: value is rooted in the continuously used infrastructure, not fleeting marketing hype. That’s where true scarcity lies.