Most people consume the attention economy. They follow, stream, like, and share. Pauv lets you trade attention — open a position on whether a public figure's cultural relevance will rise or fall, priced in dollars, settled in real time. This is how the mechanics work.
What it means to trade attention
Trading attention on Pauv is not buying a stock in a public figure. It is not a binary bet on whether something will happen.
It is a directional forecast on cultural relevance, the Net Public Sentiment Index (NPSI) of a specific public figure, that settles instantly and stays open until you close it.
The NPSI has a floor at zero and no ceiling. It moves continuously as users open and close forecasts on Pauv.
When you open a position, you are committing capital to a read on where cultural relevance is heading. When you close it, the index determines your outcome.
There is no counterparty, no order book, no expiration date.
The two directions: Positive and Negative Forecasts
Every position on Pauv is either a Positive Forecast or a Negative Forecast.
A Positive Forecast commits capital to the curve and pulls the NPSI up. You profit if the index rises while your forecast is open.
You lose if it falls. Closing the position reverses the integral back down the curve and returns the proceeds.
A Negative Forecast uses escrow-based mechanics: your net stake is matched dollar-for-dollar by capital extracted from the curve, and both amounts are held in escrow.
You profit if the NPSI falls while your forecast is open — the buy-back costs less than your stake and you receive more than you committed. You lose if the NPSI rises — the buy-back costs more.
Both directions settle through VBC 4.1, Pauv's proprietary pricing engine. A single continuous bonding curve governs both directions.
No separate pools, no liquidity requirements, no counterparty matching.
What moves the NPSI and when to act
The NPSI moves on forecasting activity, not on social data or algorithmic feeds. But forecasting activity is itself driven by cultural events, the raw material of the attention economy.
Understanding which events move which categories is the core read when deciding when to open a position.
- Sports: title runs, injury news, contract signings, tournament performance, retirement announcements. A figure entering a championship run typically generates sustained Positive Forecast activity across weeks.
- Music: album drops, chart positions, tour announcements, festival headliners, awards, public controversies. The window between a release announcement and the chart confirmation is where the sharpest moves tend to happen.
- Politics: polling shifts, debate performance, legislative wins or losses, scandal cycles, endorsement news. Political figures tend to have high volatility in short windows around specific events.
- Influencers and Film and TV: brand deals, platform controversies, casting announcements, cancellation events, viral moments. These categories tend to move fast and correct fast — the window for acting on a read is narrow.
- The common thread: the NPSI moves when conviction enters the market. Your read on a cultural event is worth something only if you act before the market prices it in.
Fees, floor, and what you can lose
Every forecast on Pauv carries a flat 1.8% fee on the gross cash amount — split between a 1.3% platform fee and a 0.5% good-faith royalty set aside for the public figure whose NPSI is being forecasted. The fee applies on both opening and closing.
A round trip in a quiet index costs approximately 3.57%: the compounded effect of paying 1.8% on both legs. That is the baseline cost of being wrong about direction with no movement in between.
For Negative Forecasts, the maximum loss is the net stake — the escrow structure means no additional capital can ever be required from you.
A Negative Forecast is automatically closed if the buy-back cost reaches the liquidation threshold of its escrow. Liquidation is bounded but can equal the full stake in a sharp adverse move.
The full mechanics of both forecast types are published and auditable. Every price move is computed from a published closed-form integral.
How to get started
Pauv accepts multiple payment methods, card, Apple Pay, crypto, and more. Funds are held securely in an FBO account. Deposit, and your on-platform balance is ready to use.
From there, the process is three steps: read the market, form a directional view, open the forecast. Close whenever the story shifts.
Start trading attention on the figures shaping the culture
Pauv is the first signal market where you can trade attention — open and close directional forecasts on the NPSI of public figures across every major category.
- Open Positive Forecasts on figures whose cultural relevance you believe will rise
- Open Negative Forecasts on figures you believe the market is overvaluing
- Browse live indices across Sports, Music, Politics, Influencers, Business, and Film and TV
- Fund your account using your preferred payment method — card, Apple Pay, or crypto
- Read what a public sentiment market is to understand the category
Start trading attention on Pauv and put a live dollar value on the cultural reads everyone else is only talking about.