What Is Manifold.xyz?

Creators who wish to make their own NFTs typically rely on NFT marketplaces to mint their creations. However, the marketplace's third-party contract doesn’t prioritize the artist and instead generates a random smart contract. Manifold.xyz is revolutionizing the way artists showcase their work on the blockchain for the better.

Manifold.xyz is an NFT minting platform that enables Web3 creators to mint their own NFT, while maintaining creative ownership, preserving on-chain provenance, and interoperating with all popular NFT marketplaces.

If you're interested in learning more about Manifold and how it benefits both creators and collectors, keep reading below.

Generally, NFT creators mint their NFTs using a smart contract provided by the same marketplace that is selling their NFT. Although this option works, it doesn’t shed light on the creator.

Manifold.xyz was founded by Web3 developers Eric Diep, Richerd Chan, and Wilkins Chung to serve as the first platform where NFT artists can enjoy full ownership of their work.

In August 2021, Manifold received $7.9 million in seed funding to continue expanding its market. Artists like Jay Z and Steve Aoki have even produced their own NFTs using the platform, along with a variety of other well-known artists and creators.

All NFTs that are minted on Manifold.xyz are also compatible with all the popular NFT marketplaces we know and love today, including OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Zora, and more.

Manifold offers users embedded smart contract technology called Manifold Creator Contracts, which enable creators to take full ownership of their NFTs by allowing their name to stand out, rather than the marketplace.

Since its launch, Manifold has continued to update and give users new features, including Manifold Gallery in October 2022.

Gallery, a zero-fee marketplace, is a showcase of what one can build with Manifold's underlying web-based widgets. "The best marketplace will be the one you build as an artist, curator, collector, developer, or marketplace," the Manifold team said in a blog post.

As of now, many NFT creators use NFT marketplaces to mint their own NFTs. What’s wrong with that? Well, your NFT becomes a product of the marketplace’s third-party minting contract, meaning it's assigned a random ID and is often listed next to unrelated NFTs that were created using the same contract. However, with the Manifold Creator Contract, that is not the case.

The Manifold Creator Contract ensures that NFTs minted on the Manifold platform are authentically attributed to the creator. This way, collectors can assure the NFTs they purchase from their favorite creators are 100% authentic, and artists are better recognized.

Having collaborated with Pak, Mad Dog Jones, and FVCKRENDER, Manifold.xyz has come to terms with what NFT creators desire. Essentially, the main focus of Manifold’s Creator Contract is:

• Authenticity — true provenance for creators
• Interoperability — works with existing ERC-721 and 1155 NFT platforms
• Extensibility — unique, creator-approved NFT applications

To mint your own custom NFTs, Manifold has created what they call their Manifold Studio.

Manifold Studio allows you to mint your own NFT with zero coding required while retaining the ownership and provenance of your creation.

Using Manifold’s seamless user interface allows you to mint your own NFT with the click of a button. The Studio takes care of all the technical back-end work for you, allowing you to focus on creating and enabling you to make your own custom smart contract.

Once the contract is deployed on the mainnet, you have complete control over your own smart contract and the ability to mint ERC 721 and ERC 1155 tokens. The minting process is as easy, if not easier, than posting something for sale on Ebay.

Simply upload your asset, customize your metadata, then press the Mint button, It’s that simple.

Currently, the Manifold studio supports:

• High-resolution video and images (4K+; unlimited file size).
• Attribute customization.
• Video thumbnail customization.
• Fully decentralized on-chain storage.
• Compatibility with major NFT platforms (OpenSea, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Rarible, SuperRare, and Zora).

The overall goal for Manifold.xyz is to offer a creative platform in the best interest of artists and creators alike. Giving artists a toolset to create their own NFTs and allowing them to customize their own smart contracts without knowing how to code is important as we continue to push forward in the NFT space.

Manifold Studio launched “Paid Claim Pages” which allows creators to easily sell their limited and open edition ERC 721/1155 NFTs with their own personalized drop page. The app saw nearly 100k mints and 700 ETH in volume just three weeks after its launch. 

And now, with a new design and added creator identity verification section, Manifold has made paid claim pages available for everyone.

Through this app, creators can take full ownership of their edition drops by launching them any way they choose: paid or free, limited or open, with or without an allowlist, and all on their own custom contract. With personal mint pages, creators have complete control over their editions.

In addition to the claim pages, Manifold Studio's snapshot, giveaway, and Shopify Merch Bridge tools provide even more ways for creators to engage with their collectors. 

For those with enough technical know-how, it's even possible to set up these pages on their own website using Manifold's developer tools.

The best part? Manifold offers paid claim pages completely free of charge. That’s right, 0% fees. That means all creators can benefit from the app's functionality and reap the rewards of their work.

As a collector, you can now add your email to subscribe to all updates from your favorite creators via Manifold Notifications. Simply go to the creator’s claim page, connect your wallet, add your email, and you’re done!

You'll receive updates for all claims created by the artists you subscribe to as well as reminders of when claims start and when they are about to end. Plus, notifications for Burn-Redeem campaigns will also be available to subscribers soon.

As a creator, you don't have to do anything to enable this feature. When creating a claim, you have the option to send a notification to all your subscribers or not, giving you the flexibility to manage how you want to announce your drop.

Manifold is also working on ways to improve how creators can better engage with their subscribers. This includes creating special drops and other possible mechanics that creators can leverage with subscriptions.

Let's take a look at some of these other exciting and innovative updates!

Manifold’s Burn Redeem App enables ERC 721 and ERC 1155 token burn functionality. This allows creators to set up a burn function for their NFTs, and collectors the ability to burn an NFT in exchange for another.

Previously, the Burn Redeem App only supported ERC 1155 burns, but it now supports burning ERC 721 too.

Creators can configure 1 of 3 possible sets of eligible burn tokens on any Manifold ERC-721 contract, including:

• All tokens (all tokens within a single contract)
• All tokens within a specified token ID range (i.e., tokens 1-100)
• A specific set of token IDs (i.e., tokens 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)

Any ERC 721 token within an eligible burn token set can be redeemed for a new ERC 721 edition as configured by the creator.

Before completing a burn, collectors will see a screen that shows what they're burning and what they're redeeming.

When you use the Burn Redeem App to burn your tokens on a contract for the first time, there's also an extra step you need to take. The app will ask you to approve your tokens on the Burn Redeem contract. 

By doing this, you give the app permission to execute the burning of your tokens. It's an important step to make sure that everything goes smoothly, so don't worry if you see it pop up. 

Just follow the instructions and you'll be set.

Moreover, the Burn Redeem app has some new upgrades that creators are sure to find useful. These upgrades include gas optimizations, which can save on fees, as well as multi-token burns, allowing for the burning of multiple tokens at once. 

The app also has paid burns, so you can burn tokens while also receiving payment, as well as airdrops, which allow for the distribution of tokens to a large number of people.

Another upgrade allows for the burning of tokens from external contracts, and there's even cross-spec burning between ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens. These upgrades can help creators customize their tokens and improve their functionality.

That said, the Burn Redeem App is constantly evolving, and mint fees are part of the upgrade. The expected fee for this application will be 0.00069 ETH (approximately $1) per edition minted. Claims will follow with a similar contract upgrade.

All these upgrades pave the way for a new level of creativity for creators and additional opportunities for collectors.

As Manifold continues to grow, the company has been grappling with the question of how to best monetize its platform while staying true to its mission of empowering creators. 

Traditionally, companies in the Web3 space have turned to percentage-based fees on sales, but this didn't feel right to the Manifold team. They didn't want to create a fee structure that would unfairly benefit larger creators or incentivize them to focus on higher-volume sales.

So instead, Manifold will be introducing a small flat fee for buyers of items collected through its apps.

For example, collectors who mint pieces through Claim Pages or Burn Redeem will be charged a per-piece fee at the time of purchase. 

However, it's important to note that 100% of the revenue will still go directly to the creator. This fee is designed to be a tiny "gas fee" that will help Manifold keep the lights on and continue building its platform for all creators.

One thing that Manifold feels strongly about is aligning itself with Ethereum. This means that no matter the price of the piece being minted, the Manifold fee will remain the same, similar to how gas costs are independent of the value exchanged in a transaction. Manifold believes this approach will be the most sustainable long-term.

Nonetheless, there are certain elements of the Manifold platform that will always be free for creators, such as deploying a smart contract and minting NFTs via Manifold Studio, as well as 1/1s, series and batch mints from the studio, and airdrops.

Manifold's recent updates have been completely focused on improving the user experience. This has led to their massive involvement in the Open Edition NFT trend, which helped creators earn over 1300 ETH (equal to $1.6M) in a single week.

Manifold has made it incredibly easy for anyone to create and release their own NFT, regardless of their technical abilities. By doing this, they've lowered the barrier to entry for creators of all levels, allowing them to tap into the ever-growing NFT market.

If Manifold keeps up its excellent work of prioritizing an amazing user experience, they will likely remain the go-to minting platform for creators.