Nododile, Thandile2026-02-192026-02-192025https://hdl.handle.net/10566/21979Distributed data storage systems are vital in the era of expanding data across various applications. Industries like finance, healthcare, and the Internet of Things (IoT) require efficient management of vast and significantly growing data. Traditional centralised storage systems face challenges in scalability, security, and availability. They’re prone to bottlenecks, cyber-attacks, and data loss together with latency during network failures. These limitations significantly impact the reliability and efficiency of data storage, making them unsuitable for critical IoT applications where real-time data access and integrity are important.enBlockchainIPFSDistributed Data StorageSmart Water MeterScalabilityThesis