Decentralized Storage Protocol Walrus Public Testnet Now Live

Mysten Labs, a key player in the web3 infrastructure space, has unveiled that after a successful Devnet phase, the Walrus Protocol, a decentralized storage network, is now live on its public Testnet.

Walrus Protocol efficiently stores and delivers substantial data files, encompassing rich media content, audio files, videos, images, PDFs, and beyond, sourced from web2 and web3 platforms. Walrus offers a cutting-edge solution for storing large files, referred to as blobs, with remarkable speed and efficiency. Its storage capabilities are resilient, scalable, programmable, and secure, making it a top choice for data management. Walrus’s public Testnet and its Testnet token, WAL, operate on Sui, which is the essential coordination layer. Sui delivers a specialized management framework for Walrus, enabling efficient storage of its global state and metadata. This architecture ensures rapid consensus, enhances composability, and allows seamless storage integration within smart contracts on Sui. Walrus is set to unveil its Testnet, featuring:

• API endpoints that support deletable blobs, meaning data can be deleted. 
• The dedicated Walrus explorer, which allows users to search data quickly and comprehensively, was built by Stakestab Inc., the maker of Suiscan and Blockberry API Platform. 
• Full tokenomics ecosystem for the Walrus token, WAL, including epoch management, staking and unstaking, rewards, and the WAL token faucet for developers.
• Mysten Labs developed the WAL staking app.

“As blockchain projects aim to become more decentralized, it has been apparent for quite some time that a decentralized storage network was needed for networks of all kinds, L1s, and L2s, to support end-user applications with rich media and larger storage needs,” said George Danezis, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder at Mysten Labs. “Walrus Testnet going live is a pivotal moment in that journey. With Akord and Decrypt beginning the migration over to Walrus, we’ll begin to see that a decentralized storage network can be used to bring various applications to a mass audience.”

With the rollout of Walrus’s public Testnet, Akord, a platform dedicated to secure storage and collaboration, is making waves by migrating from Arweave to Walrus. This move highlights Akord’s commitment to delivering user-friendly, cost-effective, and decentralized storage solutions for all digital assets. Akord is gearing up for a migration to Walrus in the coming week. The recent development follows Decrypt Media’s announcement regarding its integration with Walrus, positioning the publication as the pioneering media outlet dedicated to storing articles and video content on the Walrus platform.

“At Akord, our mission is to create a platform that empowers individuals and businesses with meaningful data ownership – the ability to secure data publicly and tokenize it, or store it privately with end-to-end encryption, controlling the keys and access,” said Pascal Barry, CEO of Akord. “Migrating to Walrus allows us to offer our existing customers a more cost-effective, versatile, and performant solution, as well as giving us the opportunity to realize our mission at a much larger scale.”

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Utilizing a cutting-edge architecture that segments extensive data files into manageable pieces known as ‘Red Stuff,’ Walrus efficiently disperses these data fragments across a network of storage nodes. This mechanism guarantees that, even in the event of data loss, the entirety of the information can be restored seamlessly. This strategy minimizes data redundancy, enabling the network to expand effortlessly while guaranteeing swift and dependable data access. Walrus unveils cutting-edge storage verification mechanisms via proofs and attestations, motivating nodes to store fragments of every file securely. Rather than validating each file separately, Walrus evaluates the whole storage node, dramatically reducing the expenses associated with data storage verification.

Walrus, with Mysten Labs as its original contributor, made its debut on Devnet in June 2024. The whitepaper dropped in September 2024 and was showcased by Janet Wu, Head of Product, Platform, at Mysten Labs during Sui’s Singapore Builder House Event. Walrus Mainnet is set to go live in 2025.