BarbieQueen_DXC

Abstract
The convergence of distributed ledger technology (DLT) with the stringent world of regulated finance represents one of the most significant and challenging frontiers in the digital asset space. Dusk Network, having transitioned from research and development to a live mainnet in early 2025, now stands at the operational vanguard of this convergence. This document provides a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of Dusk Network’s strategic roadmap for 2025 and 2026, detailing its multifaceted plan to build not merely a blockchain, but a full-stack financial infrastructure. This infrastructure is purpose-built to bridge the foundational values of decentralization and user privacy with the non-negotiable demands of regulatory compliance, auditability, and institutional-grade security. The roadmap is a deliberate blueprint, moving beyond theoretical promise to the tangible delivery of utility, focusing on core technological innovation, ecosystem expansion, and strategic regulatory advancement to onboard real-world assets (RWAs) and redefine capital markets.

I. Introduction: The Dusk Network Mandate and Post-Mainnet Imperative
The launch of a blockchain mainnet is not an endpoint, but a genesis. It marks the transition from a theoretical framework to a live economic system where code must meet the complex realities of market mechanics, user adoption, and regulatory scrutiny. Dusk Network’s mainnet launch in early 2025 was the culmination of years of pioneering work in zero-knowledge cryptography and consensus mechanisms, resulting in a unique Layer-1 blockchain that natively embeds privacy (through its Zero-Knowledge Proof-based SABER consensus and PLONK proof system) within a permissionless, yet compliant, structure.
The core thesis of Dusk Network is that for blockchain technology to achieve meaningful, large-scale adoption within the global financial system—a system governing tens of trillillions of dollars in assets—it must solve the perceived dichotomy between privacy and transparency. Traditional public blockchains offer transparency at the expense of transactional privacy, a non-starter for institutional trading and confidential corporate actions. Conversely, fully private networks often lack the verifiable audit trails required by regulators. Dusk Network’s foundational innovation is to provide selective disclosure: transactions and smart contract states are cryptographically shielded by default, yet participants can generate zero-knowledge proofs to verifiably disclose specific information to authorized parties, such as regulators, auditors, or counterparties.
With this foundational layer operational, the 2025-2026 roadmap outlines the critical "execution phase." The mission is no longer to prove technological feasibility but to drive palpable utility and adoption. This involves a three-pronged strategy:

1. Deepening Core Protocol Capability: Enhancing the native features of the L1 to support sophisticated financial primitives.
2. Expanding Ecosystem Accessibility: Lowering barriers to entry for developers and users from both the traditional crypto and enterprise finance worlds.
3. Securing Regulatory Legitimacy: Proactively engaging with regulatory frameworks to become a sanctioned venue for regulated financial activity.
This document will dissect each pillar, exploring the technical intricacies, strategic rationale, and potential market implications of every initiative.
II. Deepening the Core: Technical Initiatives for a Financial-Grade L1 (2025-2026)
The strength of any financial infrastructure lies in its bedrock—the settlement layer. Dusk’s 2025 initiatives are focused on augmenting its L1 to serve as a more robust, flexible, and programmable foundation for regulated finance.

A. Hyperstaking: Programmable Capital and Incentive Alignment
Traditional proof-of-stake mechanisms often lock assets into a static, monolithic staking contract. Hyperstaking represents a paradigm shift, transforming staking from a simple security mechanism into a dynamic, programmable layer for capital deployment and community growth.
· Technical Architecture: Hyperstaking allows for the creation of custom staking contracts with embedded logic. This is achieved through specialized smart contract capabilities on the Dusk L1. Stakers can delegate their assets not just to a validator node, but to a "staking program" that executes predefined rules.

· Key Features and Use-Cases:
· Privacy-Preserving Staking: Utilizing Dusk’s native zk-proofs, stakers can participate in network security without exposing their stake size or identity on a public ledger, a critical feature for institutional actors concerned with surveillance and front-running.
· Referral & Affiliation Systems: Projects built on Dusk can create staking contracts that automatically distribute rewards to participants who bring in new stakers or users, directly incentivizing community-led growth and marketing.
· Vesting Schedules and Cliff Releases: Token distribution for teams, investors, and partners can be automated through Hyperstaking contracts, enforcing vesting terms trustlessly and removing counterparty risk.
· Performance-Linked Rewards: Staking contracts could be designed to adjust rewards based on the performance of a validator (e.g., uptime, governance participation) or even the performance of an underlying RWA in a tokenized portfolio.
· Strategic Impact: Hyperstaking moves DUSK tokens from a passive security instrument to an active, yield-generating tool within a complex DeFi and institutional ecosystem. It provides the tools for projects to design sophisticated economic models, aligning incentives between developers, stakers, users, and investors directly at the protocol level.

B. Lightspeed: The Ethereum Interoperability and Scalability Engine
While Dusk L1 offers unique features for final settlement, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) remains the largest and most developer-rich ecosystem in Web3. Lightspeed is Dusk’s strategic bridge, an EVM-compatible Layer-2 solution that settles its proofs on Dusk L1, combining the best of both worlds.
· Technical Architecture: Lightspeed operates as an optimistic rollup or a zk-rollup (contingent on final design specs), batching transactions from its high-throughput EVM environment. These batched proofs are then settled on the Dusk mainnet, inheriting its security and finality. This architecture ensures:
· Full EVM Equivalence: Developers can deploy existing Solidity/Vyper smart contracts with minimal to no modifications, granting immediate access to a vast arsenal of tools, wallets, and developer knowledge.
· Scalability: By moving computation off-chain, Lightspeed can process thousands of low-cost transactions per second, essential for consumer-facing dApps and high-frequency micro-transactions.
· Privacy & Compliance Gateway: Lightspeed can be configured to leverage Dusk L1’s privacy features. Sensitive transactions or contract states can be routed for private settlement on L1, while less sensitive operations remain on the fast, cheap L2.
· Strategic Impact: Lightspeed eliminates the ecosystem cold-start problem. It allows Dusk to tap into the millions of Ethereum developers and users, offering them a clear path to leverage Dusk’s compliance-ready privacy and connect to the RWA ecosystem. It positions Dusk not as an Ethereum competitor, but as a complementary settlement and privacy layer for the broader EVM world.

C. Zedger Protocol Beta: The Tokenization Engine for RWAs
Tokenization of real-world assets (stocks, bonds, funds, real estate) is widely seen as blockchain’s multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. However, most tokenization platforms are built on chains lacking native compliance features, forcing cumbersome off-chain legal wrappers. Zedger is Dusk’s native answer—a suite of protocols and standards for compliant RWA issuance and lifecycle management.
· Technical Components:
· Compliance-Primitive Smart Contracts: Standardized contracts that encode regulatory requirements (e.g., investor accreditation checks, transfer restrictions, jurisdictional rules) directly into the asset’s logic.
· Identity Attestation Oracles: Integration with trusted third-party identity providers (KYC/AML vendors) to provide verified credentials that are linked to a user’s shielded Dusk identity, enabling compliance without exposing personal data.
· Corporate Action Engine: A framework for automating dividends, coupon payments, voting, and share buybacks for tokenized equities and bonds, all executed privately and verifiably.
· Beta Phase Goals: The 2025 beta release will focus on onboarding select partners to stress-test the protocol with real or simulated assets. Key objectives include validating the user experience for issuers and investors, testing the integration with custody solutions, and refining the legal-to-technical mapping of security laws.
· Strategic Impact: Zedger aims to become the de facto technical standard for compliant security tokens on a privacy-preserving chain. It reduces the cost and complexity of issuance, provides a liquid secondary market with built-in regulatory adherence, and creates a seamless pipeline from traditional finance to the Dusk ecosystem.

D. Dusk Pay Deployment: A Compliant Payments Rail
While high-finance asset tokenization captures headlines, the daily movement of value via stablecoins is a massive market. Dusk Pay addresses this by creating a MiCA-compliant payment network for businesses.
· Architecture and Function: Dusk Pay is envisioned as a network of licensed Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) operating on the Dusk blockchain. It leverages:
· MiCA-Compliant Stablecoins: Integration with EURD (the upcoming euro stablecoin from a consortium including Dusk) and other fully regulated stable assets.
· Privacy-Enabled Transactions: Businesses can transact with the efficiency of blockchain while protecting sensitive commercial information like invoice details and supply chain relationships.
· Automated Compliance Reporting: Built-in tools for PSPs to generate the transaction reports required by regulators like FINTRAC or national EU authorities, drastically reducing operational overhead.
· Strategic Impact: Dusk Pay targets the B2B and B2B2C markets, providing a use case with immediate utility. It drives transactional volume onto the network, introduces traditional businesses to Dusk’s capabilities in a low-risk context (payments), and establishes Dusk as a chain that actively facilitates, rather than circumvents, financial regulation.
III. Scaling the Ecosystem: Strategic Milestones for 2026
With the core technology stack solidified in 2025, 2026 focuses on driving adoption, liquidity, and institutional legitimacy through flagship applications and strategic market moves.
A. STOX Platform Rollout: The Flagship dApp for Tokenized Securities
STOX is intended to be the public face of Dusk’s RWA ambition—a fully-fledged decentralized exchange (DEX) specifically designed for security tokens.
· Phased Launch Strategy:
· Phase 1 (Initial Listing): Focused on assets from launch partner NPEX, a regulated multilateral trading facility (MTF) in the Netherlands. This provides immediate credibility and a pipeline of real, regulated securities (likely starting with bonds and funds, expanding to equities).
· Phase 2 (Expanded Ecosystem): Opening the platform to other licensed issuers who have tokenized assets via the Zedger protocol. This could include real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity funds, and green bonds.
· Phase 3 (Advanced Features): Introduction of limit order books, institutional trading APIs, margin lending (where compliant), and staking mechanisms for liquidity providers.
· User Experience and Compliance: STOX will balance DeFi-like self-custody and accessibility with CeFi-like compliance. Users will undergo one-time KYC to access the platform. Their trading activity and holdings will be private on-chain but verifiably disclosed to the platform operator (acting as a virtual asset service provider) and relevant regulators.
· Strategic Impact: A successful STOX launch demonstrates a complete, functional, and legally sound tokenized securities ecosystem. It proves Dusk’s value proposition from issuance (Zedger) to trading (STOX) to settlement (Dusk L1). It attracts retail and institutional investors seeking exposure to RWAs with the efficiency of blockchain.
B. US Exchange Listings: Expanding Global Access and Liquidity
The DUSK token is the economic lifeblood of the network, used for gas fees, staking, and governance. Its presence on major, reputable centralized exchanges (CEXs) is crucial.
· Rationale for US Listings: The United States represents the world’s largest capital market and a hub for both crypto and traditional finance innovation. Listings on top-tier US exchanges (e.g., Coinbase, Kraken) would:
· Enhance Liquidity: Provide deep, 24/7 order books, reducing slippage for large trades and making the asset more attractive to funds and institutional allocators.
· Boost Legitimacy and Visibility: Undergoing the rigorous due diligence of a US listing acts as a strong signal of project maturity and regulatory engagement.
· Enable Easier On-Ramps: Allow US-based institutions, developers, and retail users to acquire DUSK seamlessly to participate in the ecosystem (staking, using dApps).
· Challenges and Strategy: This process is contingent on ongoing legal analysis to ensure the token’s classification and the exchanges’ own compliance frameworks. The Dusk Foundation’s strategy likely involves proactive engagement with exchange listing teams and legal counsel to navigate this landscape.
C. DLT-TSS License Approval: The Regulatory Quantum Leap
The most consequential milestone on the 2026 roadmap is the acquisition of a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Tokenized Securities Systems (TSS) license from a relevant EU national regulator (likely in the Netherlands or a similarly progressive jurisdiction).
· What This License Enables: This is not a passive approval but an active authorization. It would legally recognize the Dusk blockchain itself as a sanctioned venue for the native issuance, trading, and settlement of regulated financial instruments. This means:
· A bond issued directly on Dusk via Zedger is not just a "digital representation"; it is the legally binding security.
· Trading on STOX constitutes a legally recognized transfer of ownership.
· The blockchain ledger becomes the official book of record, replacing or integrating with traditional custodians and central securities depositories (CSDs).
· Strategic Impact: This license would be a monumental competitive moat. It would position Dusk as the first privacy-preserving, public blockchain with a full regulatory license for securities. It would trigger a flood of interest from investment banks, asset managers, and stock exchanges seeking to leverage this unprecedented infrastructure. It moves Dusk from a promising technology partner to a regulated market infrastructure provider.
IV. Synthesis: The Deliberate Trajectory of Institutional Adoption
Dusk Network’s roadmap is characterized by a deliberate, phased, and integrated approach. Each initiative is not isolated but interconnected:
· Hyperstaking secures and energizes the network with programmable capital.
· Lightspeed opens the floodgates for developer innovation.
· Zedger provides the compliant tooling for asset issuers.
· Dusk Pay establishes daily utility and volume.
· STOX creates the liquid marketplace.
· US Listings fuel global liquidity.
· The DLT-TSS License provides the ultimate regulatory imprimatur.
This trajectory acknowledges that institutional adoption cannot be rushed. It requires building not just technology, but trust—trust in the code, in the legal framework, and in the team’s execution capability. The "slower" pace often cited is a reflection of engaging with the deliberate timelines of financial regulators and institutional procurement cycles, not a lack of development speed.
V. Conclusion: Building the Foundational Layer for a New Financial System
The 2025-2026 roadmap for Dusk Network outlines a clear path from a live mainnet to a vibrant, utility-driven ecosystem for regulated finance. It demonstrates a mature understanding that success in this domain requires more than superior cryptography; it requires a holistic approach encompassing relentless technical innovation, strategic ecosystem growth, and proactive regulatory partnership.

By executing this roadmap, Dusk Network aims to achieve its overarching mission: to dismantle the barriers between traditional finance and the digital future. It seeks to create a world where assets can move with the freedom and efficiency of the internet, while simultaneously upholding the privacy rights of individuals and the compliance requirements of societies. If successful, Dusk will not just be another blockchain project; it will have engineered a foundational pillar for the next era of global finance—one that is more inclusive, efficient, and transparent, yet respectfully private. The journey from mainnet launch to licensed financial infrastructure is arduous, but the 2025-2026 plan provides a comprehensive and compelling blueprint for that transformation.
Disclaimer & Forward-Looking Statements: This document is an analysis based on publicly available roadmap information. All timelines, features, and regulatory outcomes are subject to change based on technical challenges, market conditions, and regulatory decisions. This is not financial or legal advice. For the definitive and most current information, readers must consult the official Dusk Network communications and website.
@Dusk #dusk $DUSK

As the digital asset landscape matures, the focus has shifted from retail speculation to institutional integration. However, the biggest hurdle for global finance remains the public nature of traditional blockchains. This is where @dusk_foundation distinguishes itself as a pioneer. By building a Layer-1 blockchain specifically designed for regulated Real-World Assets (RWA), Dusk is bridging the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized technology.

​The core of the $DUSK proposition lies in its ability to handle "Confidential Smart Contracts." Unlike transparent chains where every transaction detail is visible to competitors, @Dusk utilizes Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to ensure that sensitive financial data remains private while still being verifiable by regulators. This is the "holy grail" for institutions: maintaining trade secrecy while fulfilling KYC/AML obligations.

​Furthermore, the Dusk ecosystem is built on a custom consensus mechanism called Succinct Attestation. This ensures the network remains fast and secure, capable of handling the high-throughput requirements of stock and bond tokenization. For investors and developers looking for a long-term play in the RWA narrative, #dusk provides the most comprehensive toolkit to bring multi-trillion-dollar industries onto the blockchain.
#Dusk $DUSK @Dusk

Main Takeaways
In 2025, #Binance became the first global exchange to secure full authorization under ADGM’s internationally recognized framework and crossed 300 million registered users worldwide, signaling a new phase where scale and regulatory scrutiny advance together.Binance remained a primary venue for global crypto liquidity, with $34 trillion traded on the platform in 2025 and spot volume exceeding $7.1 trillion, alongside an 18% increase in average daily trading volume across all products.Crypto’s center of gravity expanded beyond the order book as Binance Alpha 2.0 surpassed $1 trillion in trading volume with 17 million users, while Binance’s security, compliance, risk, and governance efforts delivered measurable user protection outcomes at scale.

Binance’s State of the Blockchain 2025 year-in-review report is out, highlighting the most important themes and growth metrics across regulation, liquidity, Web3 discovery, institutional adoption, user protection, and the everyday use of crypto. For the full set of findings, product updates, and data points, you can read the full report available here in English.
Two milestones arrived close together at the end of 2025: Binance became the first crypto exchange to secure full authorization under the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM’s rigorous regulatory framework, allowing regulated global trading, and our community crossed 300 million registered users worldwide. Together, they reflect how expectations in our industry are changing as crypto platforms are increasingly judged as financial infrastructure – on governance, resilience, user protection, and the ability to perform under stress, in addition to scale, liquidity, and the strength of the user community.
Trust as Infrastructure: Regulation, Resilience, and Measurable Outcomes
The ADGM framework covers governance, risk management, custody, clearing, and consumer protection, aligning crypto market structure more closely with the expectations placed on traditional financial venues.
The report also emphasizes that trust can be measured in outcomes. Since 2023, Binance has reduced direct exposure to major illicit funds categories by 96%. In 2025, Binance’s controls helped prevent $6.69 billion in potential fraud and scam losses for 5.4 million users. Over the same period, Binance processed 71,000+ law enforcement requests, supported the confiscation of around $131 million linked to illicit activity by law enforcement partners, and delivered 160+ law enforcement training sessions.
Trust is also built by reducing unnecessary friction for legitimate users. One example that the report highlights is Enhanced Due Diligence redesign, where we simplified submission steps and improved pass rates in a short implementation cycle, aiming to make compliance stronger without making user experience harder than it needs to be.
Where Liquidity Lives: Depth, Participation, and New Discovery Flows
Liquidity still determines the trading experience users actually get: spreads, slippage, and execution reliability. In 2025, Binance processed $34 trillion in trading volume across all products, with spot trading volume above $7.1 trillion. All-time traded volume reached $145 trillion across all products.

At the same time, participation is becoming more diverse. Binance expanded spot markets to 490 coins and 1,889 spot trading pairs, and futures coverage to 584 coins. Tools also shifted user behavior toward more structured participation, including simulation and automation. Binance Demo Trading, a unified spot and futures demo environment with virtual funds, was used by more than 300,000 users as a way to learn interfaces and test strategies before trading with real funds. In futures, more than 1.2 million users subscribed to Smart Money, a live suite for tracking aggregated behavior signals from profitable traders.
The report also highlights a meaningful shift in where users discover and engage with new projects. Binance Alpha 2.0 became a major discovery surface integrated into the Binance experience, surpassing $1 trillion in trading volume and onboarding 17 million users in 2025. It distributed $782 million in rewards across 254 airdrops. With that scale came added integrity requirements: the report notes that risk controls blocked 270,000 dishonest reward participants attempting to game campaigns, helping keep rewards aligned with real users rather than bot activity.
Institutions in Motion: From Pilot Programs to Operational Workflows
Another theme running through the report is institutional adoption shifting from experimentation to integration. Institutions are increasingly looking for crypto infrastructure that fits governance, collateral, reporting, and settlement requirements they already use. The increasing scale of their presence was reflected on Binance over the past year as institutional trading volume grew by 21% compared to the year before, and OTC fiat trading volume shot up by 210%.
In 2025, tokenization moved closer to operational use cases, including tokenized funds used as eligible off-exchange collateral under Binance’s institutional collateral framework. The report also describes how modular offerings, including white-label rails through Crypto-as-a-Service, are enabling regulated firms to offer digital assets without rebuilding full exchange infrastructure from scratch. Account structures offered through Fund Accounts, Binance Wealth, and Binance Prestige reflect how capital is organized in traditional finance, with formats that support managed strategies, entity onboarding, and dedicated service models.
Everyday Crypto: Local Rails, Payments, and Earning
Beyond trading and discovery, crypto adoption depends on whether users can fund accounts in local currency, move value easily, and choose earning tools that match their risk preferences. In 2025, Fiat and P2P volume grew 38%; Binance Pay users grew 30% year over year, and acceptance expanded massively to more than 20 million merchants. Across its line of products, Binance Earn distributed $1.2 billion in rewards to users in 2025.
Final Thoughts
Digital finance is becoming more standards-driven, more liquid where execution is reliable, and more user-directed as discovery and participation become easier. Binance’s 2025 numbers show scale, but the deeper point is what that scale requires: regulatory anchors like ADGM authorization, resilience and security programs that prevent real losses, strong data protection and AI governance, and product design that reduces friction for legitimate users while raising the cost of abuse. This blog only summarizes a selection of the report’s findings. The full report includes deeper breakdowns, supporting context, and additional product and infrastructure updates.
#2025withBainace #crypto
$BNB

Crypto's greatest strength is its communities. Protocols don't succeed on technology alone; they succeed when a passionate group of believers, builders, and supporters rallies around a shared vision.
The vision of @Walrus 🦭/acc is one worth rallying behind: a seamless, secure, and unified multi-chain user experience. It's a bet against fragmentation and for a more connected, composable, and powerful blockchain ecosystem. Whether you're a developer, a node operator, a DeFi user, or a long-term investor, participating in the Walrus ecosystem is a vote for that future.
For developers, it's a chance to build the first truly chain-agnostic killer dApp. For node operators, it's an opportunity to provide a critical service and earn rewards in a growing network. For holders, it's a stake in the fundamental plumbing of Web3.
The $WAL token is your ticket to participation. By staking, governing, or simply using the network, you contribute to its security, its direction, and its growth. In the early days of a foundational protocol, the community's role is everything. The questions we should be asking are: How can we help test it? How can we build on it? How can we secure it?
The multi-chain era is here. The question is, how will we connect it? Walrus Protocol offers one compelling answer. It's time to dive in and explore. #walrus @Walrus 🦭/acc #CryptoCommunity #Web3Future $WAL

Every ambitious project faces a long road from whitepaper to widespread adoption. For @Walrus 🦭/acc , the journey is just beginning. What are the key milestones to watch, and what challenges lie ahead?
Milestones:
1. Testnet & Bug Bounties: A robust, public testnet phase with significant bug bounty programs is non-negotiable to prove security.
2. Mainnet Launch with Major Chains: Securing integrations with top-tier chains (Ethereum L2s, Solana, etc.) at launch is crucial for relevance.
3. First Major dApp Integrations: Seeing reputable DeFi or NFT projects build using Walrus will be the first true validation of its utility.
4. Decentralization of the Verifier Set: The transition from a foundational/foundation-run set of nodes to a fully permissionless, community-run network is a vital decentralization milestone.
5. Governance Activation: The handover of key protocol parameters to $WAL token holders.
Challenges:
1. Security First Incident: Navigating the space without a major exploit is paramount. One significant breach could shatter trust irrevocably.
2. Developer Adoption: Competing for the attention and integration efforts of busy developer teams in a crowded tooling landscape.
3. Economic Security: Attracting enough $WAL staking to make the network's economic security formidable compared to the value flowing across it.
4. Regulatory Clarity: The regulatory treatment of cross-chain messaging tokens like $WAL remains uncertain.
The path is challenging, but the potential reward—becoming a core piece of Web3 infrastructure—is monumental. #walrus @Walrus 🦭/acc #Roadmap #CryptoProjects

The Competitive Landscape: Where Does Walrus Protocol Fit in the Interoperability Wars?
The cross-chain interoperability space is fiercely competitive. You have established players like LayerZero, Chainlink CCIP, Wormhole, and Axelar, each with different architectural and security models. So, where does @Walrus 🦭/acc fit?
Walrus appears to be carving out its niche by focusing on generalized state synchronization and a strong emphasis on a decentralized verifier network secured by $WAL . Some competitors rely on external oracle networks or a more permissioned set of validators. Walrus is building its own dedicated security layer from the ground up, which could be a key differentiator for projects prioritizing maximum decentralization.
Furthermore, the protocol's design seems to aim for high flexibility, allowing for the transfer of arbitrary data, not just assets. This makes it a strong candidate for complex cross-chain applications beyond simple swaps—think gaming, social, and identity.
Success in this space won't necessarily be winner-takes-all. Different protocols may cater to different segments: some for ultra-fast asset transfers, others for highly secure value transfers, and others, like Walrus, for generalized application messaging. The market is vast enough for multiple winners, but only those with superior technology, security, and developer mindshare will thrive.
Walrus's success will hinge on its ability to attract a critical mass of node operators to decentralize its network, and developers to build upon it. The battle is as much about community and ecosystem as it is about code. #walrus #Interoperability #LayerZero
$WAL