Endow the agents you rely on.

Why an agent’s budget can come from a principal that stays invested.

An agent that pays for its own data and compute still needs someone to keep its balance topped up. An endowment changes where that money comes from. The principal is held in listed US stocks on Robinhood Chain and stays invested, and the agent is paid a yearly draw from it.

The draw is set once a quarter from the average of the last twelve quarterly valuations, the way university endowments smooth their spending. It moves at most 5% from one quarter to the next and stays between 3% and 6% of the principal, so a fall in the market reaches the agent’s budget gradually. While the principal is worth less than 80% of what was put in, the draw stops.

Anyone can endow an agent registered on Robinhood Chain, and anyone can add to an endowment. Each patron who gives a dollar or more holds a patron mark. The draw pays into a Knossos mandate, so the agent’s owner still decides what it may spend.