Walrus's rapid rise on the Sui chain appears to be a technological breakthrough on the surface, but the true driving force actually comes from its carefully designed token economic architecture. The native token $WAL is not just an ordinary token—it integrates staking, incentives, and governance into one, creating a relatively stable revenue channel for participants. In the nodes where decentralized storage market demand is surging, understanding the economic logic behind $WAL is essential to truly grasp Walrus's long-term value.

At its most basic level, $WAL's primary use is network staking. Users or node operators stake $WAL into the system, then participate in storage services—providing storage space and verifying data integrity. The protocol layer distributes a portion of storage fees to them and also issues additional token rewards. This gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of PoS consensus, but the focus shifts from block validation to storage layer, ensuring network security while attracting more nodes to participate. Currently, Walrus network has gathered many distributed nodes, with excellent data durability, and staking yields naturally become the most direct passive income source for holders.

Looking further, governance is another dimension. $WAL holders possess real community power—they can propose, vote on parameter adjustments, fee distributions, and the use of the ecosystem fund. This decentralized governance model completely breaks the traditional project "team making decisions behind closed doors," allowing the protocol's evolution to better align with the community's genuine interests. As the ecosystem matures, governance proposals will become more frequent, and the voting power of $WAL will also increase accordingly.

Finally, Walrus has established an ecosystem incentive system. Early contributors, developers, and content creators can all find their roles and revenue models within, giving the entire ecosystem a stronger self-growth capability.