Decentralized storage protocols have long faced an awkward issue in promoting adoption, but the focus of discussions is often misunderstood. The so-called "large files are expensive" is not actually the main contradiction; rather, the cost structure for small files is simply outrageous—storing a 10KB configuration file and a 1MB image costs roughly the same on the protocol. What’s the logic behind that? Essentially, each upload incurs a fixed metadata overhead, a complete process must be followed, and a record must be made on the chain. What are the consequences of this? NFT projects that store just a few thousand small avatars can push costs to the point of being unaffordable, and storing sample datasets for AI models becomes prohibitively expensive.

This problem has long gone unresolved until mid-last year when a storage project launched the Quilt feature. Honestly, when it first came out, the industry’s reaction was lukewarm; everyone thought it was just a batch upload feature, nothing special. But those who tried it found that this thing was a game-changer—it’s not simply a file bundling operation, but a complete redesign of the small file storage logic at the protocol layer, boosting efficiency by several hundred times.

How impressive is the data? It can improve efficiency by 106 times for a 100KB file, and for smaller 10KB files, the improvement reaches 420 times. This is not speculation; these are real performance metrics. From another perspective, storing 10,000 10KB configuration files that previously cost 1000 WAL tokens now only costs 2.4. This is not a traditional percentage optimization; it’s literally cutting costs from sky-high to negligible.

The core idea behind the technology isn’t that complicated either. Under traditional methods, each data block needs to be individually encoded, generate corresponding metadata, create a separate object on the chain, and pay gas fees. Even for very small files, these fixed costs cannot be avoided. Quilt’s design is to bundle and optimize these fixed costs at the protocol layer.