# Contractualization of the Digital Afterlife
**Domain:** Digital Afterlife / Contract / Governance
**Doc Type:** Canonical Concept
**Maturity:** Developed
**Evidence / Concept Status:** Corpus synthesis
## Definition
**Contractualization of the Digital Afterlife** is the process by which postmortem choices become expressed through directives, trusts, service terms, licenses, fiduciary appointments, funding commitments, and succession clauses.
## Continuity Significance
It reveals that persistence is not merely metaphysical; once services and custodians are involved, terms and counterparties matter.
## Existing Architecture / Evidence
Cryonics, digital estates, postmortem data directives, trusts, and platform legacy programs already use contractual or directive forms.
## Evidentiary Boundary / Red-Team Note
Contract cannot waive every future right of an autonomous continuant and cannot substitute for public-law protections where power is asymmetric.
## Related Ontology
[[wiki/Eternal Disposition Contract|Eternal Disposition Contract]] · [[wiki/Continuity Contract|Continuity Contract]] · [[wiki/Service-Level Constitutionalism|Service-Level Constitutionalism]] · [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]]