Manifold have announced some major changes to the way that we can earn Mana by trading in the name of creating a "sustainable Mana economy":

https://manifoldmarkets.notion.site/Announcement-A-sustainable-mana-economy-08b86e8937554cc7a4608371f66ecb10

This includes having users pay fees to trade and paying market creator bonuses out of these trades.

Ultimately, the changes as laid out will mean an end to the current situation where every market effectively adds Mana into the system as the market creator gets bonuses out of thin air and market subsidies mean that traders on aggregate win more Mana than they lose.

Manifold have made it clear that these changes are needed because of their upcoming pivot.

Is this because the upcoming pivot will mean that Mana has real value to users over and above the current ability to donate it to charity?

The market will resolve to YES if following the pivot:

• Mana can legitimately be converted to money (without needing to use a third party which is not sanctioned/recommended)

• Mana can be used to purchase goods and services (eg. you can pay for physical goods or something which people generally pay for like a Spotify subscription)

• Mana can be used to buy gift cards for reputable and widely used organisations (eg. Amazon gift cards)

• Mana can be converted to equity in Manifold itself

• Anything which is equivalent to the above

It will not be sufficient if:

• Mana can be traded for digital products with non intrinsic value

• Mana can be traded for special offers/discounts (eg. 20% off at x shop)