A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing unit of a dispersed storage network (DSN) transmitting a write request to a set of storage units of the DSN. The write request is requesting DS error encoding of a data segment of a data object. The method continues by a first storage unit interpreting the write request to determine a DS error encoding function and a first pillar number of the DS error encoding. The method continues by the first storage unit executing the DS error encoding on at least a first portion of the data segment using at least a first portion of an encoding matrix to produce a first encoded data slice that corresponds to the first pillar number. The method continues by the first storage unit storing the first encoded data slice and sending an acknowledgement of storage to the DS processing unit.