A developer-first video infrastructure built on Walrus and Sui, offering cloud-grade video hosting without centralized dependencies.
Building video infrastructure is expensive and complex. Teams must integrate object storage, upload pipelines, CDN delivery, access control, and billing across multiple vendors. This creates lock-in, high costs, and operational burden.
Existing solutions optimize for delivery, not ownership. Videos are tied to platforms with no guarantees around portability, integrity, or long-term availability.
An open-source, self-hostable video backend that uses:
- Walrus for decentralized blob storage
- Sui for on-chain state (ownership, balances, metadata)
- Seal for private video encryption and access control
- HLS streaming for standard video playback
Developers get a simple API to upload, manage, and serve videos. End users watch videos through standard players. Private videos are encrypted and only accessible to whitelisted wallets.
This platform is not a centralized service. It's infrastructure that anyone can run.
| Concern | How We Address It |
|---|---|
| "What if you go down?" | Self-host your own instance |
| "What if you censor content?" | Run your own backend, same protocol |
| "Is this really decentralized?" | Storage (Walrus) and state (Sui) are decentralized. Backend is just an API layer anyone can deploy |
The backend is a convenience layer, not a gatekeeper. All video data lives on Walrus. All ownership records live on Sui. The backend simply provides developer-friendly APIs and caching.
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Platform Backend | API gateway, upload handling, playback serving, caching |
| Sui Smart Contract | Developer accounts, balances, video metadata, whitelists |
| Walrus Storage | HLS segments and manifests as deletable blobs |
| Seal Key Servers | Access control verification, key derivation for private videos |
- Developer deposits SUI, gets bandwidth quota
- Upload: Video → Backend → Transcode to HLS → Store on Walrus → Register on Sui
- Playback: End user → Backend (cache) → Walrus → HLS stream
- Renewal: Scheduled job auto-extends blobs if balance sufficient
| Decision | Choice | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Blob ownership | Developer's wallet | Simpler UX, end-users don't need wallets |
| Blob type | Deletable + auto-renewal | Content removal possible, GDPR compliant |
| Payment | SUI deposits only | Fully on-chain, no fiat complexity |
| Playback | HLS streaming | Industry standard, works everywhere |
| Bandwidth exceeded | Videos become unviewable | No credit risk, clear incentive to top up |
| Deletion | Storage resource reusable + SUI rebate | Walrus reclaims storage, Sui refunds object fees |
| Private videos | Seal + envelope encryption | True privacy, client-side decrypt, backend never sees content |
| Access control | Wallet whitelist | Developer manages allowed addresses on-chain |
Detailed flows documented below. Click to expand each diagram.
1. Developer Onboarding - Registration and SUI deposit
2. Video Upload - Chunked upload, HLS transcoding, Walrus storage
3. Video Playback - HLS streaming with caching
4. Auto-Renewal - Scheduled blob lifetime extension
5. Video Deletion - Content removal with storage reclaim
6. Bandwidth Enforcement - Quota checking and blocking
7. Embed Player - iframe and direct HLS embedding
8. Private Video Upload - Seal encryption with envelope encryption
9. Private Video Playback - Client-side decryption with wallet auth
Developers pay in SUI. Costs map directly to underlying resources:
| Resource | What Developer Pays |
|---|---|
| Storage | Blob size × epochs (passed through from Walrus) |
| Bandwidth | Per GB served (from deposited balance) |
| Renewal | Same as storage cost (auto-deducted if balance available) |
When a video is deleted:
- Walrus storage resource is reclaimed (reusable for new uploads)
- Sui object storage fee is refunded as rebate
- Developer registration & SUI deposits
- Video upload (original resolution)
- HLS playback with caching
- Bandwidth quota enforcement
- Auto-renewal of blobs
- Video deletion with storage reclaim
- Basic embed player
- Public and private videos
- Private video encryption (Seal integration)
- Wallet whitelist access control
- Multi-resolution transcoding (adaptive bitrate)
- Token-gated access (NFT/token ownership)
- Analytics dashboard
- Webhook integrations
- Custom player branding
- Competitive analysis of existing video platforms (Mux, Cloudflare Stream, etc.)
- Technical architecture documentation
- Sui smart contracts (Move) - accounts, videos, whitelists
- Walrus storage integration
- Seal integration for private videos
- Upload & playback pipeline (public + private)
- Developer SDK (TypeScript)
- Reference implementation
- Documentation & open-source repository