Every well-functioning ecosystem has a common trait — it relies on a complete public goods supply mechanism to drive it. Cities need roads and parks, the internet needs TCP/IP protocols. So what about the Web3 era? Walrus Protocol aims to build a sustainable public infrastructure for the most critical resource — data.

Currently, data is locked in "private estates," which is a true reflection of the present. Traditional public goods often fall into the trap of "tragedy of the commons" and insufficient supply. Walrus's idea is quite innovative: using a combination of cryptography and economic models to design a brand new public goods supply scheme.

It integrates globally dispersed storage resources into a shared data resource pool. Developers, creators, and users can access it at low cost, without relying on any single company's influence, and without worrying about service interruptions. On the technical level, Red Stuff encoding ensures resource utilization efficiency, while WAL tokens serve as the economic hub maintaining the entire system.

Speaking of WAL, it’s not just an ordinary token in this network. Using data resources costs WAL — this is the "municipal fee." Storage nodes maintaining the network earn WAL — this is the "reward." Community members use WAL to vote on the evolution of public resources — this is the "governance right." The design results in: public goods supply is no longer a one-way consumption but becomes a self-consistent economic cycle, aligning the interests of users, nodes, and developers.

What is the deeper meaning behind buying WAL? It’s essentially betting on the feasibility of a new social cooperation model — whether a global, decentralized, sustainable data infrastructure can truly be realized and thrive. Once successful, it will become the most solid foundation of digital civilization, more resilient than any private product.