Vital Spend: How Mesh-Native Applications Consume Vital DIU
Vital spend is the mechanism by which mesh-native applications consume Distributed Intelligence Units in exchange for compute capacity — routing, storage, inference, and privacy enforcement. Spend is metered continuously at signed, deterministic rates and recorded immutably for audit.
Vital spend occurs every time a mesh-native application consumes compute capacity on the DOSFI or MeshInfer infrastructure. Unlike traditional cloud billing where you pay with money upfront, Vital spend is denominated in Vital DIU — units your infrastructure has already earned by contributing compute to the mesh. Spend is recorded per operation, signed by the node, and accumulated into a billing period that enterprises then redeem to fiat.
Vital Spend Rate Schedule
| Dimension | Unit | Base Rate | Standard | Confidential | Sovereign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Routing | Per GB transited | 1.0 Vital / GB | 1.0× | 1.8× | 3.2× |
| Storage | Per GB-month retained | 0.5 Vital / GB-month | 1.0× | 1.8× | 3.2× |
| Inference | Per 1,000 tokens processed | 2.0 Vital / 1K tokens | 1.0× | 1.8× | 3.2× |
| Privacy Enforcement | Per enforcement event | Multiplier applied | 1.0× | 1.8× | 3.2× |
All rates are deterministic and signed at the protocol level. Privacy multipliers apply to the base rate for the entire billing period when a tier is selected.
Vital Spend Estimator
Estimated monthly Vital spend
2,125 DIU
Routing: 100 DIU
Storage: 25 DIU
Inference: 2000 DIU
Reference Scenarios
Small AI App (Standard Tier)
A lightweight mesh-native inference app processing 500K tokens/month with 50 GB routed.
Enterprise Inference Platform (Confidential)
A large enterprise AI platform with confidential workloads and heavy storage requirements.
Sovereign Data Pipeline (Sovereign Tier)
A regulated-jurisdiction pipeline where data never leaves the sovereign boundary.
How Vital Spend Flows Through the System
Operation Execution
A mesh-native app requests a compute operation — inference, routing, storage, or privacy enforcement — from the nearest available node.
Metered Record Created
The node signs a spend record: operation type, quantity, privacy tier, Vital cost, and timestamp. This record is immutable.
Vital Balance Debited
The application's Vital balance is debited atomically. The spend record is appended to the billing period ledger.
Billing Period Closes
At the end of each billing cycle, the enterprise's accumulated spend is totaled, verified, and presented for redemption or payment.
Settlement & Fiat Conversion
The enterprise redeems the billing period's Vital spend through MeshNativeExchange, converting to fiat via the selected banking rail.