1. A method comprises: dividing a data segment into a plurality of data segment portions; encoding the plurality of data segment portions to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data segment portions, wherein a data segment portion of the plurality of data segment portions is encoded by: selecting an encoding equation and at least one encoding constant for the encoding equation; setting a first variable of the encoding equation to the data segment portion; setting a second variable of the encoding equation to one of a set of pillar numbers; executing the encoding equation using the encoding constant, the first variable, and the second variable to produce one of the plurality of sets of encoded data segment portions; arranging the plurality of sets of encoded data segment portions into a plurality of encoded data slices; and sending the plurality of encoded data slices to distributed storage units of a distributed storage network.