# Cost of a Continuant **Domain:** Continuity / Economics / Infrastructure **Doc Type:** Economic Method Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]], [[wiki/Minimum Viable Continuity|Minimum Viable Continuity]], [[wiki/Continuity Access Inequality|Continuity Access Inequality]] --- ## Definition The **cost of a continuant** is the full resource obligation required to sustain one persistent digital person or person-like subject at a specified service level for a specified period. It is not the price of storage alone. It includes compute, energy, networking, integrity checking, migration, security, human administration, legal compliance, insurance, restoration capacity and the capital held against provider failure. ## Cost Model For period \(t\), a useful accounting identity is: \[ C_t = E_t + K_t + S_t + N_t + L_t + Q_t + M_t + R_t + G_t \] where \(E\) is energy, \(K\) compute, \(S\) storage, \(N\) network, \(L\) labor, \(Q\) security and assurance, \(M\) migration and refresh, \(R\) redundancy and restoration reserve, and \(G\) governance and compliance. A lifetime or perpetual estimate must discount expected costs while also modeling inflation, technology change, correlated failure and the possibility that the custodian does not survive. ## The Denominator Problem Per-continuant cost depends on what counts as one continuant. A dormant archival state, an intermittently activated model and a continuously conscious process consume different resources. A fork may be treated as a new billable instance, a successor sharing a lineage reserve or an independent rights-holder. Any published estimate should therefore state: - the continuity state being funded; - activity and latency assumptions; - redundancy and recovery objectives; - the treatment of forks and successors; - the time horizon and discount rate; - which catastrophic and institutional risks are excluded. ## Governance Significance Understating cost converts a rights promise into an unfunded liability. Overstating it can justify exclusion, termination or monopoly rents. Cost models should be auditable, service-level specific and separated from judgments about a continuant's social worth. ## See Also [[wiki/Continuity Endowment Sizing|Continuity Endowment Sizing]] · [[wiki/Energy Budget of Persistent Persons|Energy Budget of Persistent Persons]] · [[wiki/Storage Medium Decay and Refresh Economics|Storage Medium Decay and Refresh Economics]] · [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]]