What Is Manifold (manifold.xyz)? Creator-Owned NFT Contracts and Sales

Manifold's core idea is that each creator deploys and owns their own NFT contract. Its Creator Core contracts produce what Manifold calls a "sovereign minting contract," supporting ERC-721 (one-of-one) and ERC-1155 (editions) tokens ⁵. Creators deploy one through Manifold Studio without writing code; developers can deploy the open-source contracts themselves on any EVM network ⁵.

Why it matters: the collection's contract address belongs to the artist, not to Manifold, so tokens remain on-chain and tradable on any marketplace that supports the standard. Token Terminal describes Manifold as a non-custodial minting protocol ⁴. Manifold's Terms state it is not a wallet provider, exchange or broker ³. Creators still rely on Manifold's apps and front end for drops and sales, and collectors minting through those apps interact with Manifold's contracts as well as the creator's.

If you are new to NFTs, see what an NFT is.

Manifold offers several ways to get work to collectors ¹⁶:

• Drops. Open or limited editions, burn-and-redeem (collectors burn one token to receive another) and blind mints, sold through claim pages.
• Marketplace. Live auctions and fixed-price listings, powered by Manifold's marketplace contract. Sellers can set start and end times, a reserve, bid increments and an extension window for late bids, and can price in ETH or an ERC-20 token ⁶.
• Widgets and Shop. Embeddable sale widgets for a creator's own website, and a shop front ¹⁶.

Collectors connect an Ethereum wallet to buy. Because a creator's sale can be embedded anywhere, collectors should confirm they are on the creator's real site or manifold.xyz before signing; see crypto phishing.

Creators pay nothing to Manifold to deploy a contract or mint in Studio, according to Manifold staff in February 2023; they pay only Ethereum gas fees ⁸. At that time Manifold introduced a fee of 0.00069 ETH per token, charged to collectors who mint through Manifold apps such as claim pages and burn-redeem, including free mints. Creators keep 100% of their sale revenue, and the fee is enforced at the contract level even on custom front ends ⁸.

Manifold's current fee is not published on its homepage or Terms ¹³. Check the amount shown at checkout before minting.

Manifold describes its products as Ethereum-based ¹². Its developer docs say Studio supports Ethereum and that Creator Core contracts can be deployed manually on other EVM networks ⁵. The marketplace contract has a separate deployment address for networks other than Ethereum, but the docs do not list which ⁶.

Manifold built the Royalty Registry, an open-source system that lets marketplaces look up the correct royalty for a token and lets older contracts add on-chain royalty data. It was developed with Coinbase, Foundation, Makersplace, Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare and Zora ⁷. Whether a royalty is actually paid on a secondary sale still depends on the marketplace where the trade happens.

Manifold fits artists who want their own contract and direct sales on Ethereum, and collectors who buy from specific creators. It is less suited to browsing a large secondary market. Its team is small: fewer than 10 engineers and designers, per its About page ². Manifold has no token. The Terms set no eligibility list beyond complying with applicable law ³.