Steemian @blervin has recently made me aware of Manna, a new(ish) cryptocoin that aims to become THE go-to cryptocurrency for universal income, charitable giving and generally making the world a better place. 🌍 🌄 🌊

Background info

They are handing out an equal share of free Manna coins weekly amongst all humans who sign up. Yes, human individuals only, no business entities. @blervin explains the sign-up process and purpose in one of his articles. So, I won't go into this here. It's really easy and confirmation was instant for me.
In addition, I have come across another useful article and, of course, the white paper and infographic on their homepage.

Thinking out loud

Going through all the material, especially the white paper, some questions and comments arose.

How is the value of Manna backed?

• investors in the market
• donations to the People's Currency Foundation
• future: profits from Capital Reserve Fund
• I have seen nothing on income from subscription fees from businesses that sign up with Manna or sale of ad space. Missed opportunity?

screenshot of current price in EUR

Currency vs asset

• One of the main purposes is to create a currency that people use to spend on stuff. How will such behaviour be encouraged? Are people not more likely to hold Manna in the hope that it'll increase in value? That would make it an asset rather than money.
• The more people sign up, the smaller the amount will be that everybody receives. What is the incentive for people to sign up a few years down the line? Is this when people will start seeing and using Manna as money? Thus, the incentive will not be the free coins, but their utility?
• On that note, they intend to build e-commerce solutions and donation buttons to make transactions user-friendly. There is even talk of payment solutions for brick-and-mortar shopping.

Referral incentives

I like that the referral programme is time-limited and does not use multi-level marketing. Only direct referrals count. Also, the person using the referral link gets rewarded for doing so with a 50% bonus. Nice touch! 😊

The long haul

They seem intent on a long and prosper Manna future. I am curious to see how the Manna economic network will be maintained over generations. So much in the crypto world seems short-lived.

ID verification

• I'm not sure how bullet-proof the current verification process is - an email address and a mobile phone number to sign up. I also gave my postal address, but am not even sure whether that was required.
• They say that they'll implement an algorithmic trust system in the future based on user interactions. What about inactive holders? They will probably not log in for ages. These people will apparently be required to submit some form of proof of their unique ID. Then again, with increasing crypto-regulation, you'd expect that they'll have to implement a KYC process in the future anyway.
• I like that users who want to verify certain criteria that make them eligible to receive donations must provide social proof.

Charities

• They proudly talk about setting aside only a small admin budget and using the rest of available donations to maintain the Manna price. That reminded me of a TED talk by Dan Pallotta in which he challenges our potentially harmful relationship with charitable fundraising and expenditure.
  

They make a big point of how the focus on charities gives Manna a good reputation in the public eye. This is probably true, but we shall not forget that charities are led by humans and humans are flawed. Oxfam has recently demonstrated this. Managing public perception will be a crucial part of their job.

The option to donate your own UBI allocations to charities made me think of Kiva. I love their system because it is not just about giving. They have a circular interest-free lending process in place. Wouldn't that be an ace way of using Manna allocations?

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