Discover how Manifold is shaping a new era for artists through their Studio and a variety of extensions that let creators customize their work.

At the heart of Manifold's philosophy lies the belief that everyone should be fully in charge of their creations. Led in part by co-founder Richerd Chan, Manifold is on a mission to unlock a special set of tools that unlock a new realm of possibilities. "At a high level,” says Chan, “What Manifold does is support creators by building tools for putting their work onchain.” Manifold’s belief that creators should have full ownership and control over their work has led them to develop a platform that puts the artist in the driver seat from start to finish, with creators deploying their own smart contracts and making decisions every step of the way.

Manifold provides this level of minute control via extensions: onchain apps that seamlessly integrate with the smart contracts to expand their functionality. These unlock a myriad of creative possibilities. One extension enables the creation of Open Editions, allowing work to be distributed to a broader audience without compromising ownership. Another extension enables creators to reward holders with digital or physical goods. Yet another facilitates the creation of one onchain asset at the cost of the destruction of a different asset (known as ‘burning’), granting creators the freedom to continuously reinvent their offerings.

As platforms like Manifold soared in popularity, the cost of transactions on Ethereum also soared to unreasonable heights. Chan acknowledges this hurdle, stating, "There's a lot of prohibitive things that you can't do on Ethereum just because of the cost of operations for it." High transaction fees resulted in the act of creation becoming a burdensome ordeal, impacting creators and making them question if it was worth it to go onchain at all — and some of the extensions that Manifold provides, such as the ability to burn past work, can become quite costly when a user is required to make multiple transactions.

Beyond the reduced transaction cost that L2s like Base provide, Manifold acknowledges that there’s plenty of work ahead in order to onboard a billion users into this ecosystem. “In order to bring the whole world onchain,” says Chan, “We need to reframe what NFTs are. We need to create more compelling content that everyone wants to engage with while giving people access to the things that they really want to interact with."

Slimesunday, one of the artists that Manifold has brought for Onchain Summer, is taking advantage of Manifold’s burn technology to create a reframing of his own with a work entitled ‘The Great Purge’. Acknowledging that “with the explosion of popularity came a dark side,” Sunday is offering a “symbolic cleanse”, requiring collectors to take any asset in their wallet that ended up being a cash-grab and burn it in order to mint this new work.

“My aim is solely to remind the world that NFTs are not just a passing fad,” said Slimesunday in an announcement about his Onchain Summer creation. “They are a revolutionary technology that can empower artists, foster genuine connections, and inspire a new era of digital creativity.”

“Our mission has always been to serve creators,” says Chan, “So we know that we have to build good tools for collectors to engage with those creators. We do things the right way, and make sure that we have both the çreator’s backs, and in turn, the customer’s back.” Manifold's pioneering work in developing creator tools is a testament to the transformative power of bringing work onchain.