Many people treat WAL as an air coin, but in fact, it is the true engine within the Walrus protocol. From governance to incentives and trading, the design logic of this token is worth analyzing.

**First, the first identity: your voting rights**

Holding WAL automatically grants you platform decision-making power. This is not some superficial community vote, but real influence on the platform’s direction—want to add art storage, commodity custody, and other services? It requires our vote to pass. How to adjust storage fees, how to distribute rewards? The rules are set by token holders. This is the true face of decentralization—it's not the project team making all the decisions, but the community together deciding, with each vote counting.

**Next, the incentive mechanism**

Different roles in this ecosystem can earn WAL. Ordinary users participate in testing, stake other assets, and stay active in the community to receive airdrops; node operators can earn service fees from users and additionally receive WAL rewards, but if they lose data or have poor service attitude, tokens will be deducted as punishment. This design is clever—it attracts participation while enforcing behavior through economic penalties. Developers can also develop new applications based on the protocol and receive ecosystem incentives.

**Finally, the liquidity tools dimension**

WAL itself is the medium of exchange within the platform, used for storing value, transaction settlement, and paying fees—these are the most basic yet crucial functions of the token. The more active the ecosystem, the greater the demand.