The centralized control and orchestration server requires several orders of magnitude less resources (storage, computing power, and bandwidth) to operate, relative to the overall capacity of the cooperative.
Users can add an additional layer of security and reduce storage space by compressing and encrypting files before they are copied to the cloud.
[1] This allows the system to recreate the entire block even if some nodes are temporarily unavailable (due to loss of network connectivity, the machine being powered off or a hardware failure).
Due to bandwidth or hardware constraints some nodes may not be able to contribute as much space as they consume in the cloud.
On the other hand, nodes with large storage space and limited or no bandwidth constraints may contribute more than they consume, thereby the cooperative can stay in balance.