Manifold Creator

Introducing Manifold Creator, a creator-owned NFT minting smart contract, and more.

May 25, 2021

After months of working closely with our favorite creators, we’re excited to share our vision for Manifold Creator, a creator-owned minting smart contract, and more.

Collaborating with artists like Mad Dog Jones (REPLICATOR), Pak (ASH), FVCKRENDER (Sotheby’s Auction), we learned three key aspects that a creator-centric minting contract should feature:

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

And of course, the smart contract should be open source and free to use. In a nutshell, this describes Manifold Creator, but there’s a lot more.

So let’s get into it.

Authenticity

VISOR by Mad Dog Jones. Minted by Mad Dog Jones. View the contract here.

Currently, creators typically mint NFTs using the same platform that sells their NFT (eg. OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation). As a result, your NFT is a product of a third party’s minting contract: behind the scenes, your NFT is assigned a random ID by the platform (like Amazon assigns products with random SKUs). Further, your work is listed next to other NFTs using the same contract, oftentimes, completely unrelated.

For creators and brands who place value on their brand and work, we think its important for creators to distinguish their name in this chain of provenance. Your work should stand out based on your name, rather than get lost in the sea of NFTs.

Manifold Creator ensures the NFTs it mints are authentically attributed to the creator themselves. As a result, collectors can be assured the NFTs they purchase are 100% genuine, backed by the creator. As an example, here’s Mad Dog Jones’ first self-minted NFT on the blockchain. The token ID? 1, of course! (Also note total network cost to mint = $25 bucks; total platform fees = $0).

As NFT creators and collectos grow in sophistication, true provenance is a feature high quality creators and collectors care about.

Interoperability

Manifold Creator contract is based on the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards. As such, all NFTs minted with Manifold Creator are recognized on all open NFT marketplaces, including those like OpenSea.

NFTs minted using Manifold Creator work seamlessly with all existing open NFT platforms. This means that you have a choice of listing and selling NFTs using open libraries like the OpenSea SDK, or as you’ll read later, using your own marketplace.

Additionally, the Manifold Creator contract interoperates with NFTs minted from other platforms as well. As described further, Manifold Contracts are not only capable of minting NFTs, but interacting with other NFTs to create new collector experiences.

We think Pak’s ASH is a cool example of this, and believe many more to come as collectors seek novel experiences.

Extensibility

Finally, at the core of Manifold Creator is a powerful extension framework that allows creators to install blockchain “apps” that extend the functionality of their own creator contract.

Using extensions, creators can do much more than simply mint visual and audio NFTs. The extensions framework is infinitely customizable and enables creators to introduce new mechanics, partner with third parties platforms and much more.

How does it work?

Extensions are “plugins” for NFTs. They allow creators to design new blockchain logic in separate smart contracts that can interact with their original creator contract to produce custom NFTs. Creators have full control over which approved extensions their Creator contract can interact with, introducing the ability to componentize features when minting NFTs.

As Manifold Creator contracts can interact with any smart contract, creators minting with Manifold Creator contracts can leverage third party extensions for their own creations.

Examples

Dynamic content NFTs

Enable custom event-driven NFTs, such as an NFT that changes colors or layers based on some external event, like the weather or stock price.

Redeemable or swappable NFTs

Enable a creator to receive an NFT and return a new NFT based on an approved list. Also see: burn mechanic.

Lazy Minting

As extensions are given permission to mint on the fly, you do not need to pre-mint every single token which could save you potentially a bunch of money. It also enables dynamically minted NFT metadata, as well as pricing (eg. a bonded price curve).

Platforms as Extensions

To retain the authenticity and provenance of your NFTs, Manifold Creator is designed to let creators approve third party platforms to interact with your NFTs using standard ERC-721 and 1155 functions. This includes NFT marketplaces of all sorts that are compatible with ERC-721s and 1155s.

Collections

Similar to lazy minted selling, but with added logic to do dynamic trait assignment. Create your own NFT collectibles!

Manifold Creator also enhances the standard ERC-721 and ERC-1155 specifications and passes on these advantages to creators for free.

Convenience Features

Batch minting
Admin configuration (allow team members to mint and do other things)

Royalty Specifications

Ability for creators to set royalties (default, per extension, and per NFT)
Adherence to royalties is optional based on marketplace

For developers interested in creating their own extensions, check out the initial Manifold Creator Architecture.

Hopefully this provides an idea of what’s possible, although in no way is this the final product. We are constantly listening and learning as we continue to build products for creators.

If you are interested in Manifold Creator, reach out to us on Twitter @manifoldxyz.

Manifold