Last week's 6-hour outage on the Sui network drew widespread attention, but there is a detail worth digging into—the Walrus protocol maintained zero data downtime during the same period. The underlying logic is actually quite simple: it doesn't rely solely on the chain itself.

How does this architecture work? A combination of off-chain distributed storage and on-chain cryptographic proofs. Using their RedStuff technology stack, even if a single node goes offline, it doesn't affect the overall network data availability. It's like adding redundancy insurance to the infrastructure—while centralized systems can collapse entirely if issues arise, this decentralized design inherently possesses resilience.

The ecosystem applications make this even clearer. NFT collections like Pudgy Penguins and media platforms such as Unchained are using Walrus as their data layer. When a public chain encounters problems, their content and assets can still be accessed normally. If similar network fluctuations occur again in 2026, independent storage infrastructures like Walrus will become the standard for more and more projects.

There's also an interesting operational aspect. Since the discussion of features began on the 16th, the team has been interacting with developers daily. Last year's Seal encryption module and Quilt upgrade were almost entirely driven by community feedback. When the community complained about high costs for small files, they directly optimized to save 3 million tokens. This approach is completely different from some self-entertaining projects.

Developers fear being exploited like leeks (harvested). Walrus's strategy is the opposite—putting effort into understanding needs, solving problems, and building trust. It's indeed challenging, but that precisely shows they take infrastructure seriously.