# Continuity by Contract
**Domain:** Digital Afterlife / Contract / Infrastructure
**Doc Type:** Canonical Concept
**Maturity:** Developed
**Evidence / Concept Status:** Corpus bridge
## Definition
**Continuity by Contract** is the model in which preservation or hosting depends primarily on enforceable private agreements rather than public entitlement.
## Continuity Significance
It is likely to be an early transition regime but creates provider-failure, inequality, lock-in, and successor-enforcement problems.
## Existing Architecture / Evidence
Cryonics and private digital-afterlife services already operate contractually.
## Evidentiary Boundary / Red-Team Note
A contract model is not equivalent to a human right or public utility.
## Related Ontology
[[wiki/Continuity Contract|Continuity Contract]] · [[wiki/Privateered Continuity|Privateered Continuity]] · [[wiki/Continuity Commons|Continuity Commons]] · [[wiki/Continuity as Public Utility|Continuity as Public Utility]]