Having navigated the crypto world for years, my standard for judging whether a public chain ecosystem is truly mature is quite simple—look at what developers start to complain about.

Early complaints were all about performance issues. Is the transaction speed sufficient? Are the fees low enough? Can it handle traffic surges? Sui has already passed these tests. Parallel execution, high throughput, low costs—complex operations run smoothly.

But then the problems arise. Once the ecosystem becomes truly active, new pain points emerge—long-term game saves, historical data for analysis platforms, batch records for Layer 2… These massive data accumulations leave developers stunned. You can't possibly cram all data into the main chain, right?

The main chain's job is to process transaction confirmations, not to serve as a database. Forcing it to do so results in a huge chain size, state explosion, fee volatility, and skyrocketing node hardware requirements. This becomes awkward.

That’s when Walrus steps in, acting like a professional data steward for the ecosystem. Its logic is straightforward: the main chain handles the core transaction work, while data storage is delegated to a dedicated layer. Data is packaged into blocks, published once, and referenced across the network—no need to repeatedly embed data into transactions, saving resources. Safe, efficient, and doesn’t burden the main chain.

And what about the supporting WAL token? Its core role is to provide stable incentives. It’s not tied to transaction activity but encourages nodes to stay online long-term and continue storing data. Even in bear markets, nodes can earn stable income with WAL; data won’t be lost and remains verifiable forever. Developers can rest assured about costs.

This is what a mature ecosystem should do: layered collaboration, each doing its part. Sui ensures transaction speed, Walrus manages data storage, WAL maintains economic balance. Data is no longer a bottleneck; games can store long-term saves, analysis tools can freely access raw data, and the entire ecosystem can truly develop in depth.

Web3 moving from theory to reality relies on this precise, layered architecture—far more practical than simply piling on performance metrics.