In a decentralized system of nodes configured to provide data protection functionality, wherein at least a subset of the nodes store and share data using content-addresses managed via a distributed hash table in each of the subset of nodes, a given one of the subset of nodes locally stores: a data protection policy to be implemented by the given node; data protected on the given node; and metadata comprising information indicating placement of a given data set on one or more other ones of the subset of nodes. The given node accesses the locally stored metadata to manage protection of the given data set on the one or more other ones of the subset of nodes.