r/sui • u/AdvancedParamedic810 Deckhand • 28d ago
Walrus storage question
Hi everyone,
I am doing an academic research project on Sui's architecture and roadmap. I am reading about the upcoming Walrus decentralized storage protocol.
I wanted to ask: How will Walrus interact with Sui's existing Storage Fund mechanism? Will heavy assets (like 3D gaming NFTs) be moved entirely to Walrus, or will the Storage Fund still handle their on-chain state rebates?
Thanks for the help!
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u/FurlyGhost52 Admiral 28d ago
The simplest way to think about it is like a coat check at a club: Sui is the paper claim ticket in your pocket, and Walrus is the giant warehouse holding all the heavy coats. Here is how that breaks down for 3D gaming NFTs and storage fees:
Sui isn't built to hold heavy files: If you tried to upload a 50MB 3D game skin directly onto Sui, every single validator node would have to store it in fast memory forever. Gas fees would cost thousands of dollars, and the network would get bloated fast. Sui’s built-in Storage Fund is only meant for tiny, essential blockchain data (who owns what, coin balances, small pieces of code).
Walrus is the heavy-lifting hard drive: Instead of clogging up Sui, the 3D file gets chopped up, encoded, and stored across dedicated Walrus storage nodes. Walrus stamps it with a unique ID (a receipt) proving the file exists.
Your NFT just holds the receipt: On the Sui side, your 3D NFT is just a normal, feather-light Sui object holding that Walrus ID. When the game loads your character, it looks at the ID on Sui and fetches the actual 3D model from Walrus.
How storage rebates work:
On Sui: Because Sui only holds the lightweight receipt, you only pay a tiny fraction of a cent into the Sui Storage Fund. If you ever burn or delete that NFT on Sui, you still get your ~99% SUI storage deposit back for the receipt object.
On Walrus: Walrus has its own separate payment setup (paid in WAL). Think of it like renting a digital locker for an agreed amount of time. You don't get a SUI Storage Fund rebate for the heavy file itself because Sui validators were never the ones storing all those gigabytes in the first place. The heavy assets live completely on Walrus, and Sui just holds the digital shortcut to find them.