Pat Scott here. I’m gonna talk about Manifold’s Prize and Charity drawings, where you can convert your mana into money for yourself or for charity. The latest round of drawings comes to a close midday, Manifold-time, today, so I want you to get your shot to join while you can. You could have a few hundred dollars in your pocket by next week!
It’s no Powerball (congrats to the person in Illinois who just pulled a cool billy), but your odds are much better and all for the low, low price of some internet points… or none at all; “No Purchase Necessary” as they say with these things. (Am I shilling this hard enough? If you can’t tell, I’m also a regular participant and have won a couple small prizes.)
I’m sure most of you degenerates are savvy on the basics, so I’ll shoot them off quickly for those who are still getting their sea legs:
Manifold has run regular drawings of two types, prize and charity, for a few months now
The two ending today have been the longest-running drawings so far, and if they’re asking me to write this lil letter about the drawings you can bet more are right around the corner
You get 1 free “entry” (I’d call it a ticket but I’ve been told this isn’t a chocolate factory) in the prize drawing, and can get more with mana; having any “entries” means you can win
Charity works the same, just no freebie. But also lighter requirements, more on that later
Winners get either USDC (prize drawing) or a bunch of money donated where they choose (charity drawing)
Somebody always wins (suck it, Powerball)
They’re quite popular and often not correlated, much to the consternation of the math nerds in the room, with the going rate for buying mana. But that’s good for you because you earned your mana through your expert-tier trading, market creation, and dogged devotion to your streak, right? It’s also good for the site. They’re basically making these drawings to reduce how much mana is floating around for free, and that means the site can stick around and we can keep getting up to our nonsense longer.
The Actual Details
This section is for those who may have known the drawings existed but maybe not how they work. Also some strategy tidbits thrown in just because I’m incorrigible.
First off, yes, the two drawings are separate and have their own entries. Currently, but not always, the charity one is at a better mana-to-prize rate, if you care about that. Personally, I often throw a fair bit of mana at both.
Otherwise, they run on the same mechanisms, with a small caveat: in the prize case, each user wins with their own entries; in the charity case, all entries are pooled per charity, and the charity wins. The user whose specific entry won is still given credit, of course! The charity prize is extra cool for a few more reasons too:
You get to see the whole kit-and-kaboodle go to your favorite cool org (though I wouldn’t know firsthand because my orgs haven’t won a charity draw yet 😭)
You can get a super exclusive profile card background to join the cool kids, and even a fancy animated trophy if you’re as dedicated as Eliza, who keeps stealing it from me and everyone else
And you become part of the long tradition of Manifolders who strongly support charity efforts
Entries aren’t 1:1 with mana; they’re acquired on a curve. Early buyers get more entries for their mana, but since someone always wins, the truth is that being late isn’t a bad thing.
Let me explain: every new entry dilutes the value of older entries. This distortionary effect has actually caused me to seek extra entries later at worse rates since the ratio that matters is your mana-to-winning-odds, not your mana-to-raw-entry-count. (It’s possible to over-invest early if not enough entries are generated after you! But usually the prudent move is to get your most significant amount at the best rate you can)
Pro tip: get your biggest batch of entries first, then click on the free entry. The difference is infinitesimal, but hey, we care about fractions of a percent around here! It also means your rate isn’t sniped as quickly. (I always mess this up)
Winners are selected by a random and verifiable process, so you can rest easy knowing no one is shaving the side of a die or leaning on the scales.
Caveat, of course: there are eligibility requirements for the prize drawing that aren’t present for the charity drawing. Namely, be verified (you get extra mana bonuses for doing this anyway), be 18+, and blah blah blah. Read ‘em for yourself. But that also unlocks the free clicky click, too. Also, in both cases, don’t do anything shady to print unearned mana because that will make you ineligible forever; you won’t be refunded for any losses, and most ashamedly(🔔!) you’re wont to meet my friend the Ban Hammer.
Okay kids quiet down now, it’s time for a history lesson
You’re still here? Great! Let’s talk about how and why we have these drawings.
A long, long time ago, on a site not so far away, there used to be a huge charity fund. It was super cool, like hundreds of thousands of dollars cool. And one day Manifolders had spent all they could of it, they loved it so much.
Then the dark times happened. We call that period The Pivot. Someone somewhere decided, “You know what? All these traders actually want money, not mana or charity. Let’s make the site run on sweepstakes.” And so PPs (prize points) were born. And for these peepees, users fought, and markets died. Meanwhile, all those oldheads cried, “Where is our charity? How can our skillful trading make a difference in the world?”
You see, the site wanted to be serious™️, and if charity were to return, a new source of funding needed to be found. And so this harsh pivot was thus birthed upon our world.
Yet, miraculously, those cries of sorrow and agony were heard. The peepees were slain, the dark times came to an end, and in the new era that rose we saw a compromise: an angelic thread of light that embraced both the money and the charity. It said to us, “You may choose.” And so now we do. We choose one; we choose both.
And we do so because it helps not just us, not just our charities, but also our community. It means our mana, that distillation of our effort and spirit, can be put to purpose. We have so much of it among us, yet do we need so much? Nay! Instead we cast our excess into the deep so that which remains can be ever more precious. (Amen?)
Hey, so while you’re here, I’m looking for someone to be the crazy person to be the first to buy The Crown. They get to win this market. Also, I want Genzy to finally add my designs to the merch shop, so, uh, buy a shirt and convince him with your mana sacrifice. That’d be cool.
Cheers ya degens,
P.S. Yeah, I agree: no idea how anyone could take a currency called “PP” seriously.
I wonder what the time series implied exchange rate between mana and charity draw amount is. I totally buy that they're different, the market between mana and dollars is not liquid