Looking at the evolution of the crypto industry over the years, one phenomenon stands out: we have moved financial logic onto the blockchain, mastering transactions, transfers, and smart contracts. However, when it comes to "data," we still treat it like a second-class citizen.

Where is the problem? Most blockchain systems are fundamentally designed to handle accounts, transactions, and states. But when you need to store content, manage files, build social networks, or handle identity information, these on-chain systems can't really help you. In the end, you still have to rely on centralized cloud services.

This is quite awkward—you're putting effort into getting assets onto the chain to enjoy decentralized security, only to have to entrust your most important assets (your content, your data) to a centralized server. If that server crashes or runs away, everything is lost. The stuff you posted on-chain? After a few years, it might be a 404.

Now, some are starting to find ways to fill this gap. Projects like Walrus are not just doing "decentralized storage tools." Their ambition is to redefine "how data should exist in the on-chain world."

In this new model, data is no longer an external resource or an add-on. It becomes a native object on the chain, capable of being verified, indexed, referenced, linked, and combined with applications.

What does this change? A piece of content is no longer just "somewhere," but can be directly read and verified by protocols like tokens. You no longer need to trust any server, nor worry about links breaking someday. The content itself becomes a verifiable, persistent, shareable asset.

In a sense, this is using technology to answer a fundamental question: in the Web3 world, what should be the status of data?