Have you ever thought about how much your daily online footprints are worth? Big companies have already done the math—your data is their goldmine. But you've never received a penny.

Things are changing. Recently, while researching Web3 storage solutions, I discovered something interesting: a protocol called Walrus is rewriting the rules of data storage.

Don't underestimate it. On the surface, it looks like an on-chain hard drive, but what it does is more radical—it dismantles the entire business logic of cloud storage. Traditional solutions like AWS are expensive, centralized, and your data is essentially leased; you can take it back whenever you want. Walrus uses a technology called "Red Stuff" to fragment data and disperse it across global nodes for storage. Costs drop dramatically, and most importantly, you truly gain control over your data.

The Seal feature is particularly powerful. It adds an intelligent lock to the data—without a specific NFT or token, it can't be opened. This is true data autonomy.

Real-world cases illustrate this well. Top NFT art like Pudgy Penguins is stored on it, Claynosaurz uses it to store metadata for collectibles, and even personal data of over a million people is running on the Walrus network. This isn't just a testnet proof of concept—hundreds of terabytes of data are online, with over a hundred nodes, reaching petabyte-level capacity.

The economic model is also well thought out. Fixed total supply, aggressive staking lock-up, and actual usage burns tokens to create a deflationary mechanism. The Sui ecosystem's attention to it is evident from the investment efforts. Node performance occasionally fluctuates, but the team’s optimization speed is fast, and the production environment is now quite stable.

A16z's annual report recently highlighted it, listing Walrus as a key component of privacy and AI infrastructure. The endorsement carries significant weight.

From a different perspective, transforming from a cost center to a value asset—the shift in the storage layer—may truly be happening. It's worth studying how its Seal and Quilt protocols work to see if it can become the standard for next-generation data infrastructure.