There's a very interesting phenomenon——we already have highly efficient public chains, the DeFi ecosystem is mature enough, and NFT and blockchain games are emerging one after another. But how many applications can truly survive and achieve long-term growth? Sadly, very few.

Why?

Think carefully, and the problem is actually stuck in a easily overlooked area: data storage. The costs are too high, and applications simply can't afford it.

Traditional Web3 solutions, when handling large-scale data, have storage costs that eat up most of the project’s budget. This is no small matter—it directly determines whether an application can be scaled and implemented. No matter how fast the public chain is or how creative the application, if data can't be stored, everything is just empty talk.

Seeing this long-ignored pain point, Walrus Protocol has turned its focus to the blank space of decentralized data layers. Its approach is very clear: instead of competing with public chains on throughput or fighting for users with applications, it focuses on doing one thing well—using underlying technical solutions like erasure coding to significantly reduce storage costs while maintaining security and decentralization.

When data is no longer a burden and costs are no longer astronomical, applications can truly scale. From this perspective, solutions like data layers are not just a bonus for Web3, but an essential infrastructure.

With it, the ecosystem can move upward. Without it, innovation will always be trapped.