FP Validated Joins Walrus, a Decentralized Storage Network that Makes Data Programmable, as a Genesis Storage Node Operator

FP Validated has joined Walrus as a genesis storage node operator and will contribute to the network’s data availability and operational resilience.

In this article, we explore the core mission and architecture of Walrus, why FP Validated decided to participate in the network, and how we view the ecosystem's long-term potential.

For a more in-depth analysis of Walrus, please refer to the FP Research here.

If you would like to delegate to FP Validated and contribute to the security and stability of the Walrus network, you can stake through the link below.

1. Stake with FP Validated: Delegate WAL to FP Validated

1. What Is Walrus?

Blockchains are well suited to verifying transactions and managing ownership, but storing large volumes of data such as images, videos, and AI datasets directly onchain remains costly and difficult to scale. Centralized cloud platforms can process this data efficiently, but they introduce dependence on individual providers and make independent verification and data portability more difficult.

Walrus is a decentralized data storage network developed by Mysten Labs to address these limitations. It stores large data objects efficiently across a distributed network of storage nodes while using Sui smart contracts to manage ownership, storage duration, payments, and proofs of availability. This turns storage from a passive offchain service into a programmable resource that applications can own, compose, and control.

Since launching on Mainnet in March 2025, Walrus has expanded as infrastructure for websites, media, blockchain history, AI datasets, and other data-intensive applications. More recently, its ecosystem has also begun extending toward verifiable data and persistent memory for AI agents across different applications and environments.

The key features of Walrus include:

1. Programmable Data: Data stored on Walrus is represented through Sui objects. Developers can use smart contracts to combine data ownership, storage duration, deletion rights, and access conditions with application logic.
2. High Availability and Resilience: Data is distributed across independent storage nodes, allowing it to remain recoverable even when some nodes become unavailable. The network is designed to provide strong availability without requiring every node to hold a complete copy of every file.
3. Verifiable and Portable Data: Each blob receives an identifier derived from its exact contents, allowing users to independently verify that retrieved data has not been altered. Because the data is not tied to a single cloud provider or application, it can be used across different services without rebuilding or migrating the underlying dataset.
4. Predictable Storage Economics: Users pay storage fees in WAL, while WAL holders can delegate their tokens to storage nodes. Storage is priced in US dollar terms, with the amount of WAL required adjusting according to its market price, helping developers forecast infrastructure costs more consistently.

2. How Does Walrus Work?

Walrus separates the storage layer that handles large data objects from the control layer that records and coordinates network state. Walrus storage nodes hold and serve encoded pieces of data, while Sui manages storage resources, payments, committee membership, and availability certificates.

Its core architecture consists of the following components:

1. Storage Reservation and Blob Registration: A user acquires a Storage object based on the required capacity and duration, then registers the data as a Blob object on Sui. WAL is used to pay storage and write fees, while SUI is used to pay gas for the associated Sui transactions.
2. RedStuff Encoding and Distribution: The client or an upload relay encodes the data using RedStuff, Walrus’s erasure-coding scheme, and divides it into multiple slivers. These slivers are distributed across the current storage node committee, with each node storing the data assigned to its shards and returning a signed receipt.
3. Availability Certification and Retrieval: Once signatures from a sufficient portion of the committee have been collected, they are aggregated into an availability certificate and recorded on Sui. To retrieve the data, a client or aggregator obtains valid slivers from multiple storage nodes, verifies their integrity, and reconstructs the original blob. No single node needs to hold or serve the complete file.
4. Role of Validators: Validators in Walrus are more precisely described as WAL-backed storage node operators. They store assigned shards, respond to read requests, sign storage receipts, and transfer data when shard assignments change between epochs. Storage nodes also earn storage revenues and staking rewards based on performance and participate in setting key network parameters such as storage capacity and pricing. Sui provides consensus for onchain transactions, while Walrus storage nodes are responsible for maintaining the availability and integrity of the underlying data.

3. Why Is FP Validated Joining Walrus Network?

FP Validated sees significant potential in Walrus’s ability to combine efficient large-scale storage with blockchain-based verifiability and programmability. In particular, its separation of the storage and control layers allows applications to manage ownership, availability, and data history in a trusted manner without placing the entire dataset directly onchain.

As AI models and agents, digital media, tokenized real-world assets, and institutional financial services continue to develop, it will become increasingly important to determine not only where data is stored, but also who controls it, how its integrity can be verified, and how it can be used safely across different systems. We believe Walrus’s verifiable and programmable data layer can serve as important infrastructure for the continued development of these markets.

Our contribution will extend beyond operating reliable validator infrastructure. We also plan to participate actively in research, governance, and broader ecosystem development. By leveraging Four Pillars' institutional network and deep understanding of Asian markets, we aim to connect the Walrus ecosystem with institutions across Asia and contribute to its long-term growth.

4. About FP Validated

FP Validated is Four Pillars' institutional blockchain infrastructure arm, built on the company's research capabilities and extensive infrastructure operating experience. With a deep understanding of the protocols we support, we provide a broad range of services spanning validator operations, governance participation, and secure infrastructure deployment.

Our core infrastructure team brings more than four years of experience at one of Asia's leading blockchain infrastructure companies, where they collectively operated hundreds of networks. Drawing on this experience, we help institutions in Korea and across Asia participate in blockchain networks securely and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.

Ultimately, FP Validated aims to become the most trusted blockchain infrastructure partner connecting global protocols with institutions across Asia.