manifold/web/pages/about.tsx
2021-12-20 18:04:19 -06:00

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import { cloneElement } from 'react'
import { Page } from '../components/page'
import { SEO } from '../components/SEO'
import styles from './about.module.css'
export default function About() {
return (
<Page>
<SEO title="About" description="About" url="/about" />
<Contents />
</Page>
)
}
// Return a copy of the JSX node tree, with the style applied
const cloneWithStyle = (node: JSX.Element) => {
// Base case: Node is a string
if (!node.type) return node
// Find the appropriate style from the module.css
const className = styles[node.type]
// Recursively call this function on each child
let children = node.props.children
if (children?.map) {
// Multiple child elements
children = children.map(cloneWithStyle)
} else if (children) {
// Single child element
children = cloneWithStyle(children)
}
// Note: This probably strips out any existing classNames
return cloneElement(node, { className, children })
}
// Copied from https://www.notion.so/mantic/About-Mantic-Markets-7c44bc161356474cad54cba2d2973fe2
// And then run through https://markdowntohtml.com/
function Contents() {
return cloneWithStyle(
<div>
<h1 id="about">About</h1>
<hr />
<p>
Mantic Markets is creating better forecasting through user-created
prediction markets.
</p>
<p>
Our mission is to expand humanity&#39;s collective knowledge by making
prediction markets accessible to all.
</p>
<h1 id="faq">FAQ</h1>
<hr />
<h3 id="what-are-prediction-markets-">What are prediction markets?</h3>
<p>
<strong>
Prediction markets are a place where you can bet on the outcome of
future events.
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Consider a question like: &quot;Will Democrats win the 2024 US
presidential election?&quot;
</p>
<p>
If I think the Democrats are very likely to win, and you disagree, I
might offer $70 to your $30 (with the winner taking home $100 total).
This set of bets imply a 70% probability of the Democrats winning.
</p>
<p>
Now, you or I could be mistaken and overshooting the true probability
one way or another. If so, there&#39;s an incentive for someone else to
bet and correct it! Over time, the implied probability will converge to
the{' '}
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis">
market&#39;s best estimate
</a>
. This is the power of prediction markets!
</p>
<h3 id="how-does-mantic-markets-work-">How does Mantic Markets work?</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<strong>
Anyone can create a market for any yes-or-no question.
</strong>
</li>
<p>
You can ask questions about the future like &quot;Will Taiwan remove
its 14-day COVID quarantine by Jun 01, 2022?&quot; Then use the
information to plan your trip.
</p>
<p>
You can also ask subjective, personal questions like &quot;Will I
enjoy my 2022 Taiwan trip?&quot;. Then share the market with your
family and friends.
</p>
<li>
<strong>
Anyone can bet on a market using Mantic Dollars (M$), our platform
currency.
</strong>
</li>
</ol>
<p>
You get M$ 100 just for signing up, so you can start betting
immediately! When a market creator decides an outcome in your favor,
you&#39;ll win money from people who bet against you.
</p>
<p>
If you run out of money, you can purchase more at a rate of $1 USD to M$
100. (Note that Mantic Dollars are not convertible to cash and can only
be used within our platform.)
</p>
<aside>
💡 We&#39;re still in Open Beta; we&#39;ll tweak this model and
periodically reset balances before our official launch. If you purchase
any M$ during the beta, we promise to honor that when we launch!
</aside>
<h3 id="why-do-i-want-to-bet-with-play-money-">
Why do I want to bet with play-money?
</h3>
<p>
Prediction markets work best when bettors have skin in the game. By
restricting the supply of our currency, you know that the other bettors
have thought carefully about where to spend their M$, and that the
market prices line up with reality.
</p>
<p>By buying M$, you support:</p>
<ul>
<li>The continued development of Mantic Markets</li>
<li>Cash payouts to market creators (TBD)</li>
<li>Forecasting tournaments for bettors (TBD)</li>
</ul>
<p>
We also have some thoughts on how to reward bettors: physical swag,
exclusive conversations with market creators, NFTs...? If you have
ideas, let us know!
</p>
<h3 id="can-prediction-markets-work-without-real-money-">
Can prediction markets work without real money?
</h3>
<p>
Yes! There is substantial evidence that play-money prediction markets
provide real predictive power. Examples include{' '}
<a href="http://www.electronicmarkets.org/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/Issues/Volume_16/Issue_01/V16I1_Statistical_Tests_of_Real-Money_versus_Play-Money_Prediction_Markets.pdf">
sports betting
</a>{' '}
and internal prediction markets at firms like{' '}
<a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/2284098/google-bets-on-value-of-prediction-markets.html">
Google
</a>
.
</p>
<p>
Our overall design also ensures that good forecasting will come out on
top in the long term. In the competitive environment of the marketplace,
bettors that are correct more often will gain influence, leading to
better-calibrated forecasts over time.
</p>
<h3 id="how-are-markets-resolved-">How are markets resolved?</h3>
<p>
The creator of the prediction market decides the outcome and earns 0.5%
of the trade volume for their effort.
</p>
<p>
This simple resolution mechanism has surprising benefits in allowing a
diversity of views to flourish. Competition between market creators will
lead to traders flocking to the creators with good judgment on market
resolution.
</p>
<p>
What&#39;s more, when the creator is free to use their judgment, many
new kinds of prediction markets can be created that are less objective
or even personal. (E.g. &quot;Will I enjoy participating in the
Metaverse in 2023?&quot;)
</p>
<h3 id="why-is-this-important-">Why is this important?</h3>
<p>
Prediction markets aggregate and reveal crucial information that would
not otherwise be known. They are a bottom-up mechanism that can
influence everything from politics, economics, and business, to
scientific research and education.
</p>
<p>
Prediction markets can predict{' '}
<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15343">
which research papers will replicate
</a>
; which drug is the most effective; which policy would generate the most
tax revenue; which charity will be underfunded; or, which startup idea
is the most promising.
</p>
<p>
By surfacing and quantifying our collective knowledge, we as a society
become wiser.
</p>
<h3 id="how-is-this-different-from-metaculus-or-hypermind-">
How is this different from Metaculus or Hypermind?
</h3>
<p>
We believe that in order to get the best results, you have to have skin
in the game. We require that people use real money to buy the currency
they use on our platform.
</p>
<p>
With Mantic Dollars being a scarce resource, people will bet more
carefully and can&#39;t rig the outcome by creating multiple accounts.
The result is more accurate predictions.
</p>
<p>
Mantic Markets is also focused on accessibility and allowing anyone to
quickly create and judge a prediction market. When we all have the power
to create and share prediction markets in seconds and apply our own
judgment on the outcome, it leads to a qualitative shift in the number,
variety, and usefulness of prediction markets.
</p>
<h3 id="how-does-betting-in-a-market-work-on-a-technical-level-">
How does betting in a market work on a technical level?
</h3>
<p>
Mantic Markets uses a special type of automated market marker based on a
dynamic pari-mutuel (DPM) betting system.
</p>
<p>
Like traditional pari-mutuel systems, your payoff is not known at the
time you place your bet (it&#39;s dependent on the size of the pot when
the event ends).
</p>
<p>
Unlike traditional pari-mutuel systems, the price or probability that
you buy in at changes continuously to ensure that you&#39;re always
getting fair odds.
</p>
<p>
The result is a market that can function well when trading volume is low
without any risk to the market creator.
</p>
<h3 id="who-are-we-">Who are we?</h3>
<p>Mantic Markets is currently a team of three:</p>
<ul>
<li>James Grugett</li>
<li>Stephen Grugett</li>
<li>Austin Chen</li>
</ul>
<p>
We&#39;ve previously launched consumer-facing startups (
<a href="https://throne.live/">Throne</a>,{' '}
<a href="http://oneword.games/platform">One Word</a>), and worked at top
tech and finance companies (Google, Susquehanna).
</p>
<h1 id="talk-to-us-">Talk to us!</h1>
<hr />
<p>
Questions? Comments? Want to create a market? Talk to us unlike
praying mantises, we dont bite!
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Email: <code>info@mantic.markets</code>
</li>
<li>
Office hours:{' '}
<a href="https://calendly.com/austinchen/mantic">Calendly</a>
</li>
<li>Discord:</li>
</ul>
<p>
<a href="https://discord.gg/eHQBNBqXuh">
Join the Mantic Markets Discord Server!
</a>
</p>
<h1 id="further-reading">Further Reading</h1>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market">
Wikipedia: Prediction markets
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.gwern.net/Prediction-markets">
Gwern: Prediction markets
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.91.7441&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">
David Pennock: Dynamic parimutuel markets
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://sideways-view.com/2019/10/27/prediction-markets-for-internet-points/">
Paul Christiano: Prediction markets for internet points
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://mantic.markets/simulator">
Dynamic parimutuel market simulator
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/covid-prediction-markets-at-polymarket/">
Zvi Mowshowitz on resolving prediction markets
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
)
}