Walrus ($WAL) is gradually becoming a critical infrastructure in the decentralized storage track against the backdrop of surging storage demands in the AI era. This project built on the Sui chain demonstrates the new direction of Web3 storage through practical technological solutions and continuously expanding ecosystem applications.

From a technical perspective, Walrus's architecture design is well-thought-out. It uses erasure coding technology to distribute large files across multiple nodes, with the Sui chain providing "proof of availability" to ensure data security—this solution not only addresses capacity and cost issues of on-chain storage but also enables setting storage lifecycles and supporting automatic renewal. This means large files like videos, AI datasets, and NFTs are no longer constrained by on-chain space, giving developers greater freedom when building applications.

Furthermore, there's its privacy protection mechanism. Walrus encrypts data storage through the Seal encryption layer while entrusting access permissions to Sui smart contracts. This provides flexible permission control solutions for scenarios like subscription content, private DeFi, and identity credentials. Compared to traditional decentralized storage like IPFS and Arweave, Walrus's programmable nature means data isn't just statically stored but can dynamically interact with smart contracts.

Ecosystem applications have achieved substantial breakthroughs. Aave integrated Walrus storage solutions within its $59 billion TVL ecosystem, while Humanity Protocol migrated identity credential data to the network. Integration by these leading applications is no accident—Sui chain's high-speed characteristics (transaction confirmation <500ms) and Walrus's achieved storage scale (hundreds of TB of data on mainnet) form effective synergy, providing reliable infrastructure support for complex scenarios like gaming, social applications, and AI workflows.

From a market perspective, Walrus sits at a favorable inflection point. The decentralized storage track continues heating up, while the explosive growth in dataset demands in the AI era accelerates this process. As Sui's native storage layer, Walrus has the opportunity to achieve sustained growth amid ecosystem expansion—increases in Sui TVL and user base directly drive storage demand growth. Currently, staking volume exceeding 1 billion WAL in the network and node capacity development toward the PB scale reflect accelerating infrastructure construction.

Regarding price expectations, based on current market data (CoinMarketCap, Bitget, and other platforms), the price may touch $0.15 in the short term during 2026-2027, while medium to long-term, the price range is projected at $0.75-$1.8 by 2030. This expectation is based on the project's progress in cross-chain expansion and privacy transaction integration—areas also receiving focus from institutional investors (including recently-entered Grayscale trusts).

Of course, risks that require objective assessment include: the long-term stability of the economic model needs verification, and continued growth in application demand is essential. However, from the current trajectory, use cases are continually diversifying, and institutional capital inflows have released positive signals. On the Web3 storage track, Walrus is accumulating increasingly more chips.