Roles

Depositors provide liquidity, purchasers pay to acquire, and the protocol captures bounded fee spreads.

FND is easiest to read as three participant roles with different incentives. Depositors provide liquidity by listing positions, purchasers create demand for them, and the protocol captures bounded fees from the places where NFT value, ETH backing, and participant choices diverge.

• Depositors provide liquidity by pairing Foundation NFTs with ETH backing to earn an equal share of acquisition fees per active position, the top-deposit reward pot if they hold the crown, and √value $FND rewards. Their risk is that their NFT is selected earlier than its weight-implied average, ending its earning life before fees and rewards have much time to compound, realizing a loss versus the cut they expected.
• Purchasers pay the acquisition price to receive a randomly selected position whose market value can be higher than the price they paid. After allocation, they keep the NFT or accept the depositor bid (in ETH or as $FND); they can also earn purchaser $FND rewards.
• The protocol earns from the spread between the NFT side and the ETH side through bounded acquisition and resolution cuts, retained settlement discounts, and the separate $FND trading fee. It can tune parameters, but it cannot touch locked backing or redirect accounted depositor ETH earnings. Paid-out in-protocol fees go to the configured payout address; $FND trading fees go to their separate fee wallet.

Automation is optional infrastructure, not an economic role. Anyone can cancel a stale request, activate matured staged listings, push the protocol payout, or poke the buyback; no caller can provide randomness, choose a result, or steer a selection.