how it works
friends.bid turns a person into a market. Anyone can buy a key to anyone else; the price is set by a formula rather than by bids; and holding a key is what gets you into that person's chat. There is no order book and no counterparty. You always trade against the curve.
Someone opens their market
A market stays closed until its owner buys their own first key. At supply zero the curve charges nothing, so opening costs only network fees. Nobody else can buy in before they do. That one rule is what stops a market existing for a person who never agreed to have one.
The price is a curve, not an opinion
Key number n costs n² ÷ 1000 SOL. Every purchase moves the price up the curve for the next buyer; every sale moves it back down. Nobody quotes a spread and there is nothing to match. The formula is the whole market.
Every trade pays 10%
Five percent goes to the person whose key it is, five percent to the protocol, on buys and on sells alike. The subject's cut is paid in SOL the moment the trade lands. It is not a claim, a vesting schedule, or a promise.
Because both sides pay, a key has to appreciate past roughly 11% before a round trip breaks even. That is the honest cost of entry, and it is why the fee breakdown sits on the trade panel rather than behind a tooltip.
A key gets you into their chat
Hold at least one key and that person's private chat opens to you. Sell your last one and it closes again. The chat is what the key is actually for. The price is just what it costs to stay in while other people want in too.
The final key can never be sold. Letting supply return to zero would strand the chat and leave a curve that could not restart.