What is Manifold?
So, you’ve heard of the terms “smart contract” and “NFT” and you’re ready to begin your creative journey, but you’re not sure how or where to get started? I personally believe that the best way is through creating your own independent smart contract. The best part? It’s completely no code for most features.
To help creators that are new to NFTs, I prepared a series of videos on minting with Manifold.xyz. Manifold’s motto is, “The Creator is the Platform”, a motto I agree with strongly. Manifold is a platform that enables creators to mint their own independent smart contracts, mint NFTs off of their smart contract, and list their NFTs on their new Gallery. There are also many other features, but these are the three main ones to get you started with your NFT collection.
Why should I have an independent smart contract?
Consider web2. Centralized organizations (Meta, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) allow you to post content to their platform for free. You build a following, a digital presence, a digital identity, and in exchange they monetize your content through ad revenue. What happens if, hypothetically, Facebook decides to rebrand as Meta and you have the username @metaverse? That conflicts with their new identity and they may not want you to have that username, so they delete your account. How do you get it back?
Unfortunately, this account deletion did happen. There is no recourse against Meta itself, they can just ignore you. The user in this situation managed to get her account back by talking with the New York Times, who used social pressure to get @metaverse’s account back.
The moral of this story is that the centralized organization owns your data in web2. You have no ability to get it back unless you have enough social momentum to pressure them into reinstating your account, something that most creators do not have.
Now consider web3. The point of web3 is to have a decentralized network with people or brands owning their own data. Centralizing the control of this data defeats the purpose and the ethos (values) of web3.
Back to smart contracts. Companies like Opensea mint what is called a shared smart contract. This means that, while you can access your smart contract through the blockchain, Opensea has the power to shut down your access to the contract through their platform. This is not the way.
Opensea is a company that is based out of the United States, which means they must comply with U.S. sanctions. If you live in a country impacted by sanctions, you may have your Opensea account removed, making it much more difficult to use your shared smart contract.
If you are using an independent smart contract however, you control which platforms you would like your smart contract listed on. For example, if a marketplace does something you ethically disagree with, you can unplug your smart contract from that platform and plug it into another marketplace. This control leads to self-sovereignty over your own assets. In other words, you control your own smart contract.
The Future of Social Media
Another benefit of using your own smart contract takes into account the development of social media. In the future, it will become more common to use decentralized social media (DSM). DSM accounts are based off of your wallet or smart contract, not off of a username and password. This wallet connect function means that you can, in theory, have your fans follow your wallet address or smart contract across multiple platforms. Imagine being able to accumulate followers across multiple platforms that all lead to the same social identity. You won’t have to deal with TikTok, Instagram, Vero, Meta, etc. Instead, you can have a single profile that spans web3.
We are starting to see this happen now. I have an independent smart contract that is integrated into several marketplaces. Someone can look at my wallet or smart contract on any platform that accepts Manifold contracts and they can see the NFTs associated with that smart contract minted from my wallet. It makes it a lot easier to see the complete NFT portfolio of an artist this way.
How to get started: Minting your Smart Contract on Manifold
The first step to creator self-sovereignty is minting your smart contract. Think of your smart contract like a vending machine, you put in money and receive a good in exchange. It’s a piece of code that receives a cryptocurrency (e.g., ETH) in exchange for outputting a token (NFT or coin).
The power of the independent smart contract comes from being able to associate your smart contract with your digital identity or your brand. This aspect of smart contracts will need a full article to explain, so I will stick to the basics right now.
To begin, you will need to determine three values that are minted into the smart contract on the blockchain and are not changeable later. They are:
- the name of the contract
- the token name, and
- the ASCII art.
Thus, be deliberate and intentional with your selection of these values. More on this process is described in the video below.
Next Steps
Next, find out how to mint NFTs off of your freshly minted smart contract.
If you’re interested in reading more about the tech behind NFTs and Web3, I put together an intro and FAQ.
If you’re interested in reading more about the Creator Economy, here is the story of my journey into NFTs.
