Carbon footprint of data storage: the comparison
Certiblok®’s whitepaper compares a decentralized storage model with a hyperscale cloud and an enterprise data center. In its blended-model table, for 1 TB stored over 3 years, the estimates are 112 kg CO₂ for decentralized storage, 326 kg for the hyperscaler and 679 kg for the enterprise data center. The modeled savings are thus 214 kg (about 66%) versus the cloud and 567 kg (about 83%) versus the enterprise data center. In the purely decentralized configuration the estimate drops to 15 kg CO₂, a saving of 311 kg (about 95%) versus the cloud and 664 kg (about 98%) versus the enterprise data center. These are model results, not emissions measured for a customer. This is an internal Certiblok® study, not verified by third parties, and the estimate covers data storage only, not the whole platform.
Assumptions and limitations
The comparison considers drive production and operation, lifespan, utilization, redundancy and energy. The whitepaper assumes 3 years of storage, utilization of 40% for enterprise data centers, 75% for cloud and 85% for the decentralized network. The model does not account for read operations or data transmission and does not establish that every real archive achieves the same result. Source: Certiblok®, The Environmental Impact of Decentralized Storage: A Comparative Analysis, pp. 12–17.
Download the full whitepaper (PDF, English)
How documents are stored
Certiblok® encrypts documents with AES-256 and splits each file into 80 fragments on decentralized storage infrastructure. The network has 26,000 nodes worldwide; European customers are assigned only to nodes in the European Union.
