FAQ

A mindshare market is the board: a named set of positions competing for a share of who matters in crypto. Prices represent relative mindshare, shown in cents. The price is driven by trading activity and is the signal itself, not a proxy for some external measurement.

In a prediction market, the price represents probability. In PopularityX, the price represents mindshare. There is no oracle, no external data feed, and no resolution event. The price constitutes the measurement. Whatever the market collectively prices a position at, that is its mindshare.

The structure is the same: positions compete, prices sum to 1, and the market price is the best available aggregator of distributed belief. The difference is what is being priced. Prediction markets price the probability of a future event. PopularityX prices the current mindshare of ongoing entities and ideas. Nothing ever resolves.

In cents. A Long priced at $0.172 shows as 17.2¢, its share of the board. Prices on a board sum to $1.00, so for one name to rise, another has to fall.

Every alternative requires a curator. Twitter mentions, media coverage, search volume: each requires someone to decide what counts, how to weight it, and how to update the methodology as new platforms emerge. Those decisions introduce a single point of bias.

A market has no curator. The price reflects whatever the aggregate of trading activity makes it. The same argument explains why prediction markets produce better probability estimates than polls.

That objection has two meanings. Manipulating to make a position look big is possible, and the design prices it: pushing one position up pushes every other position down, so the whole market profits by trading against the move, and holding a price the crowd disagrees with is a continuous cost, not a one-off. Manipulating for profit fails without followers, because price impact is symmetric and you cannot exit at your own pump. See Price Manipulation for the full picture.

No. PopularityX boards are perpetual. There is no resolution event, no settlement date, and no expiry. A position can be sold back at any time, but the market itself runs indefinitely.

Long Other represents every position on a board not yet individually listed. It always retains a nonzero share. In any open-ended domain, the roster of relevant names can never be fully enumerated. Long Other is the permanent catch-all for everything not yet individually named.

A Short token gives you exposure to a position's decline. Holding a Short token means you gain value when that position's mindshare falls. Short tokens are native protocol objects, available on every position from the moment it is created. They are not derivatives and carry no funding rate.

When a Long token and a Short token for the same position end up in the same wallet, they cancel automatically and the collateral is released. No action required. See Tokens for a full explanation.

No. Short positions are not perpetual futures. They are native tokens with no funding rates and no basis risk.

No. There is no leverage and no liquidation risk. Your maximum loss on any position is the price you paid for it.

No. All positions and balances are held on-chain in smart contracts. Connect any EVM-compatible wallet and your funds remain under your control at all times.

Boards and the positions within them are created by the PopularityX team. This keeps the roster coherent and prevents overlapping or duplicate positions. Adding a pricing mechanism to an existing board is permissionless: anyone can deploy an AMM or order book on top of a live board.

PopularityX Beta is currently on a testnet. Visit popularityx.com (opens in a new tab) for early access.