The Net Public Sentiment Index
Every public figure on Pauv has an NPSI: a live, dollar-denominated measure of their cultural relevance — their Sentiment. Once a profile’s starting value is set, the value is determined solely by trading activity on Pauv: no algorithmic feeds and no external data sources are pushed into a live index.- Floor at zero. No matter how much downward trading happens, the NPSI approaches zero asymptotically but never reaches it.
- No ceiling. The NPSI can grow without bound.
- Not an asset. Users do not own the NPSI. It is a measure of public perception, not a financial instrument.
Trading Up and Down
Users interact with Pauv by opening and closing trades. A trade is a directional position on a public figure’s cultural relevance, expressed through the NPSI.1
Spot who's moving
Scan the platform, find a figure whose Sentiment you think is under- or overvalued, and form your read.
2
Place a trade
Go up if you think cultural relevance will rise, or down if you think it will fall. Trades settle instantly, with no counterparty, no contracts, and no outcomes to wait on.
3
Close when ready
The NPSI moves in real time as other users trade. Close your position whenever the story shifts.
The Valence Bonding Curve (VBC 4.1)
VBC 4.1 is Pauv’s proprietary pricing engine. Every NPSI is governed by a single continuous bonding curve. There are no separate pools, no order books, no liquidity providers, and no counterparty matching. Supply is variable and minted on the curve; there is no fixed or pre-minted per-profile inventory. Long trades push the curve up; short trades push it down. Both directions use the same published price function, with a softplus floor that guarantees the price stays strictly above zero. The engine analyses every trade against the full state of the book before it settles, so a single action can’t leave any other position underfunded.Instant settlement
No order book. No counterparty matching. Every trade settles immediately against the curve.
Floor guarantee
A softplus price function ensures the NPSI approaches zero asymptotically but never reaches or crosses it.
Self-correcting
Long and short trades drive the same curve in opposite directions, producing an accurate, two-sided signal.
Always solvent
Every price move is computed from a published closed-form integral. The engine rejects any action that would leave another position underfunded, so phantom cash cannot enter or leave the system.
How Opening and Closing Affects the NPSI
Going Long
Opening a long commits funds to the curve, raising the index. The user receives an internal token position sized by the curve’s integral between the old and new state. Closing the position reverses the integral back down the curve and returns the proceeds — a gain if the NPSI rose while the position was open, a loss if it fell.Going Short
Opening a short pushes the curve down through an escrow-backed mechanism: the user’s net stake is matched dollar-for-dollar by capital extracted from the curve, and both amounts are held in an escrow equal to twice the net stake. No tokens are borrowed from other users, no margin is extended, and no additional capital can ever be required from the user. Closing the position uses the escrow to buy the tokens back along the curve; whatever remains after the buy-back is returned to the user as their net proceeds.- If the NPSI fell while the position was open, the buy-back costs less than the net stake and the user receives more than they committed.
- If the NPSI rose, the buy-back costs more than the net stake and the user receives less.
Initial Pricing
A new profile’s starting value is priced from public signal data — Google Trends, Instagram follower counts, and other social metrics — and then anchored against existing profiles trading in a similar price range. From there, the market self-corrects: if the starting value is slightly off, trading activity pushes the NPSI to where the market believes it belongs.Fees
Every trade, whether opening or closing, incurs a flat 0.25% fee on the gross cash amount. A round trip (open then close) costs roughly 0.5% in total fees. Fees are collected into a separate treasury ledger and never enter the bonding curve. They do not affect the NPSI value or the pricing math.Referral Program
Refer a friend and collect 100% of the trading fees on their first 100 trades, credited to your balance in real time. See Referral Program.Trades on the NPSI are not securities, ownership interests, or investment contracts. They are opened and closed against a published algorithm.