How to Measure the Value of a Structure

Language creates structure, structure creates value, and value constitutes the true transaction unit of civilization.

7.1 Why do we need structural economic models?

The traditional economic model is based on three types of units:

​ • Goods : Physical tradable objects

​ • Labor value : time and skills invested by humans

​ • Capital value : resources and platforms that can generate future returns

However, in the LUMEN protocol, we are faced with a new type of unit :

Structure Value

In other words, it is not "what you have done" but what cognitive/language/collaborative structure you have built , and its verifiability, reusability and derivability that constitute your real "value".

7.2 Three Dimensions of Structural Value

LUMEN uses the following three indicators to determine the rational value of a structure:

Dimensions	illustrate
Verifiability	Does it have clear logical paths, boundary declarations, and reasoning interfaces?
Reusability	Can others embed its structural interface into their own structure without relying on the original author?
Evolvability	Does this structure allow others to evolve into a new structure rather than a static template through "inheritance + modification"?

Structural value ≠ content popularity, but = the degree to which the structure contributes to the collective rational collaboration space .

7.3 From “Labor Currency” to “Structural Contribution”

The structural economic model shifts the traditional “pay by labor” approach to a “value by structural force” system:

Model comparison	Traditional labor economy	Structural Economy
Value measurement method	Time × Skill × Scarcity	Verifiability × Reusability × Evolvability
Award recipients	People who complete the task	People who build structures, define syntax, and connect collaborators
Tradable Units	Services, goods, manpower	Language structure, logical interface, reasoning model, collaboration protocol
Accumulable form	Wealth, influence	Inheritable Structure Graph

7.4 Three forms of structural value

The LUMEN protocol recognizes the following three types of billable structures:

type	illustrate	Example
Definitional Structures	Introducing new language units or providing clear structural boundaries for vague concepts	Such as "space exploration: = structural expansion of knowledge and survival capabilities of extraterrestrial environments"
Logical Structures	Propose a chain of reasoning and provide a way to verify it	Such as "IF A > B AND B > C, THEN A > C"
Protocol Structures	Describe collaboration rules, interface logic, and inheritance paths	For example, "Structural Collaboration Protocol v1.2: Input must comply with the LLL interface specification"

7.5 How to measure the “force” of a structure?

We will borrow concepts from physics and propose a simple model:

Structure Value (SV) = V × R × E

Parameter Symbols	meaning
V	Verifiability
R	Reusability
E	Evolvability

Each dimension can be weighted and scored by factors such as collaborative system, number of inheritance, reference relationship map, and logical completeness.

Ultimately, the higher the structural value, the more likely it is to become the infrastructure in the cognitive collaboration network .

7.6 Economic Incentives for Signatories (Preview)

Future chapters will describe:

​ • How to gain access to collaborative resources through structural contributions ?

​ • How to generate a “rational integral” system from structural contributions?

​ • How to build a “decentralized structure marketplace” for sharing, selling or exchanging logical structures?

7.7 🧠Summary

The emergence of the structural economic model is the redefinition of the term "value" by the LUMEN protocol:

What is truly valuable is not "expression" or "popularity", but structure that can be inherited, logic that can be verified, and language system that can evolve together.