Have you ever wondered why blockchain storage has always been so expensive?

In the early days of decentralized storage, everyone shared the same dream—building an eternal database and an impervious fortress against censorship. It sounds impressive, but the reality was quite different. Sky-high costs, sluggish access experiences, and being confined to the "cold data warehouse" label kept the storage sector stagnant. Old players like Filecoin and Arweave didn't have good solutions either, until Walrus arrived—it's not just patching the old framework but using a combination of technologies from the ground up to smash the "impossible triangle" of efficiency, cost, and functionality. This time, the key word for change isn't upgrade but paradigm shift.

Where's the problem? Looking at existing solutions makes it clear. Arweave's logic is straightforward—each node in the network must store a complete copy of the data to ensure permanence and availability. It sounds reassuring, but the cost of storage skyrockets as the network expands, and the efficiency is abysmally low. Filecoin is slightly more flexible, allowing users to choose the number of replicas, enabling a trade-off between security and cost. The issue is, if you opt for fewer replicas to save money, the risk of data loss increases.

Walrus takes a completely different approach—it employs Erasure Coding technology. This technology isn't new in itself, but its application within storage protocols is the key. Instead of relying on redundant copying, it uses mathematical methods to cut, encode, and disperse data across multiple locations. This way, you don't need each node to store the entire dataset—just a portion of the fragments—and can quickly recover data when needed. This represents a dual breakthrough in efficiency and cost.