I've seen too many "killer" privacy technologies that ultimately die because of lack of funding. Not just one.

In this circle, I've seen countless teams: mastering zero-knowledge proofs, publishing top-tier papers on encryption algorithms. But once it comes to commercial monetization, they fall silent instantly. Tech enthusiasts get carried away, but the market just doesn't buy it—until I encountered Walrus, and found the path from technological breakthrough to cash flow.

My name is Zhou Yan, and I have been involved in Web3 commercialization for many years. Today, I won't go into small talk; I'll directly share how I turned the Walrus protocol into a business generating tens of millions annually.

**Great technology but can't make money—where's the problem?**

My awakening came from a disastrous failure while managing a privacy protocol project in 2023.

That team had a solid technical foundation—top-tier encryption skills in the industry. But as soon as it hit the market, everything collapsed:

Pricing trap—charging exorbitant per-use fees that scare away users; or offering it for free and surviving on investor funding. Integration hell—complex operations like maneuvering a spacecraft, impossible for traditional enterprises to use. Audit gap—unable to meet government and enterprise-level audit requirements, the biggest investors simply said no.

Within half a year, the funding chain broke, and the technology became a decorative piece in the warehouse.

A bloody lesson: customers aren't paying for "how awesome the technology is," but for "whether it can solve their problems."

Later, I came across Walrus in the Sui ecosystem, and it changed my perspective.

It doesn't pursue technological perfection; instead, it has a natural business instinct: lightweight (easy integration, controllable costs), versatile (adapts to multiple scenarios), compliant (meets enterprise-level requirements). This is the right approach to move from the lab to the market.