Nodes stake $WAL to join the elite committee - they store your precious data slivers (the building blocks of decentralized storage on Sui).

You delegate? Boom -- your stake boosts them - you earn juicy rewards.

But here's the spice: Random Proof-of-Availability challenges hit every epoch.

Node has to prove "I still got your data" with Merkle magic.

Fail too many times? (downtime, data loss, straight-up cheating...)

SLASHING ACTIVATED

Your bonded stake + delegated Wal gets hit:
Partial burn for low performers
Short-term stake churn - forces expensive data migrations (ouch for bad actors)

Result? Delegators flee sketchy nodes - flock to high-uptime kings
Real deflationary pressure on Wal supply

All enforced on-chain via Sui smart contracts -- no humans, no drama, pure automation.

Tolerates up to 1/3 faulty nodes (classic BFT vibes), but slashed ones? Exiled from future gigs.

Best part: Slashing rates, challenge frequency, burn splits - all governance-adjustable by $WAL holders.

So long-term degens win when they back reliable operators.

Moral of the story?
Stake smart. Choose nodes with god-tier uptime.
Because in Walrus world... bad performance = your Wal going up in flames.

Who's already hunting for those diamond-hand operators? Drop your fave node below!