Walrus

A Walrus blob is immutable bytes identified by its contents. The client encodes it into authenticated slivers, reserves capacity with a Sui Storage object and collects node receipts. Once two-thirds of shard weight signs, Sui records the point of availability. Before that point the uploader still carries the availability burden.

The promise is bounded. Mainnet sells at most 53 two-week epochs at a time. A Blob object can be extended or, in some modes, deleted, but burning the Sui object does not erase every copy and does not return WAL. Walrus sells certified storage time, not legal ownership of the information.

WAL’s source creates five billion tokens at nine decimals and sends them to the publisher, while the TreasuryCap is placed inside a shared ProtectedTreasury whose public operation is burn. The launch page reports 1.25 billion initially circulating.

The allocation separates 43% community reserve, 30% core contributors, 10% subsidies, 10% user drop and 7% investors. Investors waited twelve months after Mainnet; early contributors face a one-year cliff and four-year schedule. Mysten Labs and the community reserve follow longer paths toward 2030 and 2033.

Storage is quoted in dollars but settled in WAL. Nodes submit price information and the WAL amount adjusts so the documented $0.023 per GB-month remains the unit of account. SUI still pays the blockchain gas. A falling WAL price therefore changes token quantity, not the promised dollar quote by itself.

Prepayment enters the storage fund and is released across service epochs. Subsidies bootstrap demand and operator revenue, while 3% of each epoch’s total rewards is burned. Deleting a blob does not reverse this flow.

Stake decides which nodes receive shards and therefore revenue and operational weight. Delegators share fees but do not personally sign every upgrade. Each node designates a governance-authorized address or object; an upgrade needs more than two-thirds of shard weight within the epoch.

Current slashing is narrower than an older whitepaper design. A supermajority can burn a misbehaving operator’s accumulated commission, while delegated principal remains withdrawable. The code also defines an EmergencyUpgradeCap route; absent proof of its burn or holder, that route remains a disclosed uncertainty.

Walrus provides availability and integrity, not confidentiality or data residency. Every blob is public, IDs are discoverable, and users cannot choose the node or jurisdiction. Encryption such as Seal must happen before upload, with keys held elsewhere.

Mysten Labs originated the protocol; Walrus Foundation raised $140 million and supports the network and interface. Its terms distinguish that interface from an open-source protocol it says it does not own or control. WAL does not confer Foundation equity, dividends, fiduciary duties or redemption against reserve assets.