Continuum: An Ar.io Digital Preservation Initiative

The Ar.io Foundation stewards open protocols and open-source software for naming, indexing, and access on the Permaweb. All code and methods relevant to this document are public and independently verifiable. The Foundation welcomes external review and commentary from preservation practitioners and standards bodies as part of an open research and standards-alignment effort. Continuum is an Ar.io Digital Preservation Initiative (DPI) - an open effort to align decentralized, verifiable data permanence with established digital-preservation standards. Built on Arweave’s permanent-storage layer and the ar.io gateway network, Continuum demonstrates how decentralized infrastructure can fulfill the same guarantees of authenticity, integrity, and accessibility that underpin frameworks like the Open Archival Information System (OAIS). Its goal is to bridge the trust models of institutional preservation and decentralized technology, ensuring that cultural, scientific, and public-interest data can remain permanently accessible, verifiable, and independent of any single institution or provider. Continuum provides institutions and archives with a protocol-based architecture for decentralized preservation, aligned with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. It enables one-time funding for long-term storage through Arweave’s endowment model, eliminating recurring renewals or subscription fees while ensuring verifiable, redundant access across the ar.io gateway network - even if any single provider goes offline. Each preserved record carries a permanent, verifiable identifier ensuring provenance, integrity, and reliable citation. Network-wide verification and observation maintain authenticity over time, while open standards and open-source software ensure interoperability and freedom from vendor lock-in.