Having a proper foundation is a quality that can easily apply to a project like dusk, which is a blockchain project that has avoided the faster-paced environment of the crypto world and has instead worked on a more incremental basis. Instead of trying to do too many things at once, it has tested each level and only continued to proceed once it has a stable foundation. Incremental development is easy to describe: you build in bits, not in one gigantic chunk. And each chunk is tested and proven before the next chunk is developed. From the traditional development industry, this has long been considered the best way to build anything. But in the crypto-world, it’s less common since the community wants to see things develop rapidly and make large splashes wherever possible. However, the reason that Dusk has chosen not to use the faster development cycle is because they are working in fields such as privacy, regulatory compliance, and financial services, the former of which can’t afford the time or expense of an error or two here and there. The purpose of dusk is to enable the development of the confidential financial applications. These may include confidential transactions, tokenized assets, and smart contracts that enable the concealment of the information required while still being able to comply with the rules. Privacy in this case does not refer to the confidentiality of the law. Privacy in this case will refer to the concealment of the information required by the financial transactions, which will then be available for verification for the required period. One of the reasons incremental development at Dusk has such significance for the project is the use of zero-knowledge proofs. These are proofs which allow a person to demonstrate the validity of something without having to show the specifics. It may all seem very simple, but the mathematics behind it can be very complicated, and it requires a very small margin of accuracy to work properly to protect the privacy or security of the individual. It has taken years for Dusk to develop the accuracy of its proofs. The network architecture has also followed an incremental path. Dusk introduced its consensus model that supports privacy and fairness. Rather, the team did not push it live at full scale but did it gradually. Their early versions focused on stability and correctness. The later updates improved performance, validator rotation, and finality times. Today, blocks finalize in seconds, but that speed came after long testing cycles. Token functionality has followed suit. The DUSK token pays for fees, staking, and participation in the network. Instead of turning on all economic features from the outset, Dusk staged them in. That gave the development team a chance to see what validator behaviour, network load, and incentive alignment looked like before expanding functionality. For traders and longer-term observers, this is important because token utility which grows slowly is often more sustainable than that rushed. In Dusk, incremental development happens at the level of smart contracts, too. Privacy-aware contracts differ from their ordinary counterparts, as developers need tools that would grant a contract the ability to process data without necessarily disclosing it. So far, Dusk has enabled these features incrementally, starting from basic private transfers all the way to more involved contract logics. Every stage brings new features while maintaining backwards compatibility and safety on the network in mind. What is the reason for this approach being favored now? One reason is the timing of this approach. In recent years, the crypto markets have witnessed many rapid projects end up being unsuccessful due to errors, hacker attacks, or incorrect economic models. Today, the wise players are up for new networks that act as infrastructure and not as experiments. This approach to developments aligns with this mentality. There has been some recent improvement that has ensured that this view continues. The network continues to mature in Layer 1, with better tooling, more stable validation operations, and improved documentation for developers. Testnets are routinely utilized for experimenting with new things that are yet to be introduced on mainnets. The size of the upgrades has reduced in magnitude, though they are predictable in result. This is an important aspect for anyone building on the chain. Incremental development improves governance as well. Upgrades on the live financial system have real users. If system updates occur incrementally, Dusk minimizes the risk that comes with governance. Validators, as well as token holders, will have the chance to evaluate developments.It ensures that there are fewer point repairs in case of emergencies. There is less uncertainty when upgrading. This is the kind of thing that will signal to an experienced trader that the network is being built with longevity in mind, and not necessarily with the immediate attention of the world foremost in mind. This is not to say it is foolproof or in any way a success factor; it helps to mitigate some risks that could exist in other types of networks that develop too quickly and end up spending the next several years correcting the design flaws that were set in place when the network was being developed. The other advantage of Dusk is regulatory alignment. Dusk has been designed for use cases which overlap with other finance systems in place. Regulators are concerned with reliability, and there are aspects of auditability and control which are provided by gradual development. Every feature in this development process can be assessed, and it can be explained to a great degree. This contrasts greatly with a system so complex, and it has to be put in place only to be addressed later on. The reason this matters to the average crypto user is trust. When you make use of a blockchain to handle private transactions or asset issuance, you are relying on the system to behave as expected-not today, but in an extended time frame. Incremental development increases the chances that the system you will be using tomorrow still somewhat resembles the one you have learned to trust today. In a market of rapid launches and rapid failures, Dusk's style of development is much more akin to the building of traditional infrastructure. It has more in common with how payment networks or financial software evolve than speculative apps. That difference becomes far more relevant as crypto matures. Ultimately, however, the value of incremental development in Dusk has nothing to do with speed or media attention. It has to do with minimizing stealth risk. @Dusk #dusk $DUSK
The WAL token is at the heart of the Walrus decentralized storage network, which is constructed on top of the Sui blockchain. The WAL token is more than just an interaction cost. The WAL token serves several purposes, including payment for storing, rewarding node providers, securing the network by staking, and community governance. Since its public deployment in late 2025, the WAL token has attracted attention for its novel mechanism, which focuses more on balancing the ecosystem. In order to get a correct understanding of WAL, it would be great if there was a clear understanding of inflation. In the crypto context, inflation is nothing but the speed at which new units of money enter circulation. In the case of WAL, the overall maximum number of units of money, which stands at 5 billion, remains fixed. This means there won't be any new money created above this maximum level. Inflation would exist only while the money units are slowly issued in terms of the network emission rate. At the time of launch, there were approximately 1.47 billion WAL in circulation, which was close to a third of the total. The balance of the tokens will be released in intervals. The rest of the tokens are to be released periodically. Notably, this is important to ensure that it does not flood the markets initially but still serves as a motivation for those that are supporting the network. WAL emissions are not random events. Additional tokens are mostly awarded to the operators and stakers as a reward for storing data and contributing to the network through staking. This is in lieu of the high energy they do not consume as Bitcoin for mining the blocks to be added to the network through the mining process. A significant portion of the overall pool is dedicated to the community. Ecosystem incentives, storage subsides, and long-term reserves fall within this category. The remaining participants receive their tokens in time-unlocked manners, unlike the instant form in the initial stage. It therefore inhibits dilution and promotes alignment with longer-term objectives instead of short-term practices. However, inflation only presents half of the story here. On the flip side of this inflation are the ways in which tokens are removed from supply. WAL has burn mechanisms put in place as well. When certain network fees are paid or when a penalty is levied on underperforming nodes, a certain amount of these tokens is removed for good from circulation. This process of removing a certain amount of tokens is called burning. A balance between the emissions and the burns has to be maintained for sustainability. In the initial phase of the network, the emissions tend to be higher since incentivization has to be done to attract individuals to the network. As the network advances and more activity takes place, more burns may happen due to the various activities. Sustainability can also have an environmental component. WAL is not dependent on the proof of work mechanism for its mining. There is no need to constantly try to use the most amount of electricity possible in the current setup. It uses the most optimized forms of consensuses in the Sui Ecosystem. But economic sustainability is equally important here. This is why WAL is structured in such a way that the incentives are linked to useful actions. The data storage nodes receive tokens for reliable data storage and provision. Stakers get to be part of the governance process to secure the network.When certain network fees are paid, as penalties on suboptimal nodes, a certain amount of these tokens will be burned, decreasing the total amount of tokens in circulation. Burning also helps reduce emissions. It is essential to strike a balance between burns and emissions. In the initial phase of the networking system, the amount of emissions tends to be higher since incentives are used as an appealing force to draw people into the system. With time and as more people join the system, more burns can be expected as a direct result of increased activity. Also, sustainability has an environment dimension. Actually, the WAL network does not require proof of work. Also, there is no steady competition to burn electricity. But it uses highly optimized consensus algorithms through the Sui Ecosystem. This ensures it is less electricity consumption-intensive than the previous blockchain technology model. Economic sustainability is also important. The rewards in the WAL are incentivized for useful actions. Nodes in storage get tokens for storing data. Stakers are involved in governance. These actions are not passive. These actions involve continued engagement. These help keep the token grounded in network activities. The other aspect of the design of the WAL system is the subsidy. At the beginning stages of the system, the costs of storage may be subsidized by the protocol. At that stage, people get a chance to test the use of the decentralized storage network without having to pay for the services. As time passes by, the subsidy may be reduced. This dynamic has been one of the contributing factors in the popularity of WAL among infrastructure-focused onlookers. Instead of being focused on quick growth, this protocol has been centered on strategic rollout, strategic inflation, and longer-term alignment. Although it has been listed on major exchanges and has been involved in large airdrops, it has been on economic viability as well – can it remain robust in the long term? Traders and investors who think about more than price care about inflation and emissions because these factors affect how supply in the future will be affected. Simply capped supply does not help. It matters how fast new tokens are distributed, who these tokens go to, and if there are means to decrease supply as use increases. WAL seeks to solve all three issues. Additionally, it is worth pointing out that governance is involved in sustainability. WAL holders get a chance to vote on some protocol parameters. Some examples include storage fee, incentives, and punishments. Governance enables a system that changes as time passes and not set in stone assumptions that might not be accurate in different situations. No model of token distribution can ever be optimal. The model adopted by WAL is also reliant upon the adoption of decentralizedstorage and the continued cooperation of nodes. The emission of tokens must be consistent with demand. The burn rate must be representative of actual use. These factors will be seen in the market. To summarize, the inflation of WAL is well-managed, the distribution of its tokens has meaning, and it is focusing its sustainability efforts for useful purposes and not mere growth. It does not promote infinite coin/token creation, uses optimal infrastructure, and attempts to strike a balance between reward and being responsible. Those who analyze crypto networks with infinite time perspectives can definitely learn from the example given by WAL. To understand these mechanics, one doesn’t necessarily need in-depth technical expertise. The reasons for queries being answered and clarity being obtained are structured in the design of WAL, which is why it garners attention from those who are interested in fundamentals and not in noise. @Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL