Hi Manifold users! We are super excited to share one of Manifold’s biggest additions to the platform since inception: cash prizes!

Summary:

• We are exploring letting users earn real cash prizes by participating in a curated set of high-quality markets. Pending logistical issues, we aim to launch this in 1-2 months.
• To make this possible while ensuring that all mana liabilities can be met, we’re changing the purchase rate to 1 USD : 1,000 mana on May 15th. See below for a more detailed rationale.
• We are honoring all donations at the original 100 mana : 1 USD until May 15th. Inactive accounts can continue to donate mana at this rate for the rest of the year. If you want to make a large donation, apply for a loan on your investments. Donate your mana today!

We are working today on a killer feature that will supercharge your forecasts: real cash prizes. We plan to enable cash payouts under the sweepstakes model.

Mana will remain as a purely play-money currency used to bet on markets. But, a curated selection of markets will pay out sweepstakes Prize Points instead of Mana. Prize Points can then be redeemed directly for cash. The change to a sweepstakes model will provide the incentive needed to bring higher-quality forecasting to our platform.

We are working closely with our lawyers to roll this feature out as soon as possible, but we can’t yet guarantee a timeline.

Thanks for joining us on this journey. We are so excited to see how user-created markets evolve in this world of real money incentives.

FAQ

Q: Which markets will allow users to earn prize points/cash prizes?

A: Manifold plans to curate a set of Prize Markets, which will pay out Prize Points instead of Mana after resolution. These markets will be chosen to have high-quality, unambiguous resolution criteria. Most markets will continue to pay out mana on resolution, as before. Prize Points will be redeemable back to mana at a 1-1 rate if users do not want to cash out.

Q: Will Manifold still have personal, subjective, fun, and silly markets?

A: Absolutely! These markets may not be eligible for Prize Points but will continue to be an important part of the Manifold ecosystem.

Q: How exactly would Prize Points work?