The Power of Pi Network 

The endless buzz and nonstop chatter online and offline around Pi Network in the run-up to its ‘open mainnet’ and its establishment of “external connectivity” on February 20 are primarily—and ironically—about the price of the cryptocurrency, which has over 60 million users, also called ‘Pi’oneers, spread across 230 countries and territories. The ambition of the Pi Network’s Core Team, which includes founders Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, is, however, more than a record price on crypto exchanges.

Their declared goal is to ensure that the common man can access and benefit from crypto and blockchain technology, go about using Pi coins in day-to-day transactions, and offer an alternative to fiat currency and other official state-run avenues.

The highlight is that Pi Network, unlike other cryptos, thrived doing things differently and in a far less energy-intensive fashion—by allowing mining on smartphones that made it environment-friendly and enormously attractive to younger crowds.

Again, its mass adoption, especially in countries such as India and China, is proof of its wait-and-watch strategy generating huge anticipation and hopes of instant prosperity. Ads in paan shops in tier-3 and tier-4 towns such as Alwar and Bhuj in India, grocery vendors from Nigeria to Malaysia, and across other countries, including the advanced ones where luxury resorts promise lavish holidays for a few Pi coins, are, to say the least, confirmation of the excitement across class barriers.

Mainnet stands for a live blockchain network—a digitally distributed, decentralised, public ledger—that is up and running and ready to connect and compete with other blockchains to ensure broader access and opportunities.

Before going live, the network was in an enclosed mainnet stage, allowing as many ‘Pi’oneers across the world as possible to KYC (the process of verifying a user’s identity) themselves and then move their mined coins to their respective wallets (ready to trade amongst other KYC-ed ‘Pi’oneers). The enclosed mainnet period was seen as a period to test the resilience of the network and to fine-tune it before open mainnet. Launched on March 14, 2019, it took Pi Network six years to be open mainnet-ready and get listed on exchanges. This example gives us an idea of how to distinguish enclosed mainnet from open mainnet: Imagine you and your friends are stranded on a remote island after a shipwreck. You all have various skills, which you barter. You cook, someone else builds the shelter. Then you find 100 strange looking rocks. You start using these rocks as a currency (the way prisoners use cigarettes for currency). This is enclosed mainnet. Now at some point, the island gets so advanced that it is able to build a bridge to the mainland. Now people outside the island also want the rocks. The rocks can buy more things than earlier. This is open mainnet. These rocks are analogous to Pi tokens.

The network launched its mainnet blockchain in an enclosed state on December 28, 2021. Quite strikingly, in sharp contrast to industry practice, Pi Network did not go for an ICO (initial coin offering) to fund the massive project. It raised private equity the way any other tech startup does. In that sense, ‘Pi’oneers did not have to spend a penny of fiat currency to mine Pi coins on their smartphones. It was (and continues to be) done through free mining; essentially, it means clicking on the Pi app every 24 hours (phones could be offline all the time except while hitting the reminder prompt every 24 hours), inviting new members to mine, and through various other simple tasks that can be done on a smartphone.

Understanding Pi Network, therefore, may require rigour and a change of traditional notions about cryptocurrencies, because it is quite unlike any other cryptocurrency that wants to act swiftly to tap the markets and hit the pay dirt. Pi Network, headquartered in Silicon Valley, had said that it would enter the open mainnet stage (what it also refers to as Open Network) only if three conditions were met. “There is no specific date set. These three essential conditions depend on the collective efforts of ‘Pi’oneers, community developers, and the Core Team, in addition to uncontrollable external factors,” Pi Network had said in an announcement in December 2023. The first condition was to finish preparation work in technology, product, business, and legal requirements. The work to achieve this condition was primarily done by the Core Team, which comprises more than 35 members. The second was to “reach” a critical mass of KYC identity-verified ‘Pi’oneers on the mainnet blockchain and have diverse utility applications (dApps) in the Pi ecosystem, as <Open> had reported earlier. The third condition was the absence of an unfavourable external environment, which would hinder the success of open mainnet.

It was on February 12, 2025, that, after years of anticipation, Pi Network felt that the time was ripe and that the conditions were favourable. On that day, it announced that Pi open mainnet would launch at 8AM UTC on February 20, 2025. It added in a post: “With millions of KYC-verified ‘Pi’oneers and a thriving utilities-driven ecosystem, Open Network expands available opportunities, which allows ‘Pi’oneers to connect Pi with external systems for use in real-world applications like never before. Congratulations to the entire community for the collective efforts and work over the past six years that led us to this moment! Go to the Pi mining app to read the official Open Network announcement for more details!”

As on February 12, Pi Network announced that it had reached 10.14 million mainnet migrations (following KYC procedures), exceeding the original 10 million goal, mainly owing to upgrades, and that Pi was ready to open its utilities-driven ecosystem where now over 19 million identity-verified ‘Pi’oneers can use Pi. A meticulously executed KYC verification was the hallmark of the network. Pi also has in its fold 100 mainnet-ready dApps to help with utilities for businesses and daily Pi coin users.

“Pi Network’s over six-year journey to Open Network has been built on milestones and deliberate phases driven by ‘Pi’oneers, the ecosystem, and community,” it said in an announcement on February 11, suggesting that the extended period of scrutiny allowed ‘Pi’oneers to complete KYC and obtain Pi on mainnet and that it gave developers time to build real dApps for the Pi ecosystem. For the Core Team, it offered space to release and improve various Pi features and utilities.

Incidentally, its one-week-long “PiFest” last year, the company said, “facilitated the transaction of Pi for goods and services between Pi merchants and Pioneer shoppers on a local level, attracting over 27,000 active sellers and 28,000 test merchants across 160 countries, and participation of over 950,000 ‘Pi’oneers within just a few days”.

Now, ‘Pi’oneers can engage in transactions beyond the Pi ecosystem. Others can also buy Pi coins and exchange them for money, although it may take some time for Indians to buy and sell them because of KYB (Know Your Business) verification requirements set by Pi Network, as well as crypto regulations that make the exercise cumbersome for exchanges to list and trade in Pi coins. The KYB requirement for businesses, a first in the crypto world, could ensure that Pi Network is compliant with the law of the land and specific regulations where it operates.

The company advises ‘Pi’oneers who are not KYC-verified to get it done and then migrate to mainnet. It expects developers within the ecosystem to “refine existing, and create new, solutions that address the genuine needs of the Pi community and beyond”.

Open had reported in 2022 (‘Life of Pi’) about the philosophy of Pi Network, which was conceived by its founders for mining only on smartphones to enable its vision to be the most widely distributed and inclusive crypto. A white paper by Pi Network praised Bitcoin for its contributions to the world of decentralised digital ledgers for transactions but regretted that it could not ensure access to a wide section of people. “To provide some context, 87% of all Bitcoins are now owned by 1% of their network,” said the white paper, which added that while Bitcoin’s process for updating its record is proven (burning energy/money to prove trustworthiness), it is not very user (or planet) friendly since computation is energy-guzzling and needs large, air-conditioned spaces to house servers.

Pi is listed on global crypto exchange platforms OKX, Bitget, MEXC, Gate.io, and others who are looking to tap the Pi fever. After all, Pi Network is currently among the top five cryptocurrencies by followers on X (formerly Twitter). Among the challenges for Pi Network now are making Pi coins accessible and usable for everyday transactions, enlarging its ecosystem, and making it a tradable financial instrument for ‘Pi’oneers and businesses across geographies.

For their part, certain crypto analysts say OKX has a controversial user base and are worried that Pi prices may be manipulated and may result in panic selling given that many people had opted for the platform in search of immediate gains. Pessimists abound, too. Some argue that inflation undermines Pi’s long-term value and that mandatory KYC prioritises data collection much more than delivering real value to users. The exit of Pi Network’s third founder Vince McPhillip and his lawsuit against the other two founders had generated controversies earlier.

Bengaluru-based Pi aficionado and author of <Future of Work-AI in HR> Sreejith Sreedharan, meanwhile, weighs in on the emergence and significance of Pi Network amidst animated discussions around Pi Network. He says: “For years, Pi Network existed in a unique space within the crypto world—widely adopted but functionally limited from the external world…This transition (from a contained ecosystem to a fully open and live blockchain) opens Pi’s Layer-1 infrastructure to additional third-party applications, business integrations, and cross-chain interoperability, positioning it as more than just an experiment in mass crypto adoption.” The AI expert lauds Pi’s attempt to carve out a unique place in the crypto economy, one where accessibility meets usability.

Sreedharan goes on, “The real challenge isn’t just in making Pi accessible, but it’s in proving that accessibility leads to real-world usability. This won’t happen all of a sudden.” He adds that by opening its blockchain to external systems, Pi is hoping that its existing community will provide a strong foundation for broader integration. “While most blockchains thrive on anonymity, Pi has positioned itself differently. Transactions within its network are conducted between verified individuals and businesses, adding a layer of security and regulatory compliance that traditional cryptocurrencies often struggle with,” he argues. Sreedharan believes that Pi Network has displayed its viability thanks to PiFest 2024, which, he argues, “demonstrated that Pi could function as a real-world medium of exchange rather than just a speculative asset.” He avers, “The question now is whether businesses outside that existing ecosystem will see enough value to integrate Pi into their operations. ‘Open Network’ is the first opportunity for Pi to prove its native Layer-1 blockchain technology’s resilience and versatility.”

Summing up, Sreedharan says, “If Pi can demonstrate that a blockchain built on accessibility and trust can work at scale, it could change the conversation around crypto utility.”

Pi Network also has a social media platform called Fireside Forum, where a user needs to pay for a post and the cost can be recovered from tips from the audience who rewards the author for the utility of the content. <Open> had reported earlier (Nicolas Kokkalis interview https://shorturl.at/umKgf) that for this purpose, Pi Network uses tokenomics—short for token economics—which, according to Coinbase, is the analysis of a cryptocurrency’s fundamental characteristics that can help you compare tokens with each other and make better-informed decisions. In short, this social-media platform explores how to incentivise positive contributions and disincentivise negative behaviour.

As of now, the chat is getting louder about the opportunities and challenges of making the most of owning Pi, the native coin of Pi Network, including in India.

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