The December 28 announcement says the decision will however depend on three conditions

Pi Network founders Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis

By Ullekh NP

In an announcement that is sure to generate jubilation among its close to 50 million users, Pi Network, the world’s most widely circulated cryptocurrency with users in 230 regions that are home to 93% of the world’s population, said it will launch its “open mainnet” in 2024. Mainnet stands for an open/live blockchain network—a digitally distributed, decentralised, public ledger—that is up and running.

Launched on March 14, 2019, by Stanford graduates Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, whose main goal was to ensure that the common man could access and benefit from crypto and blockchain technology, Pi Network launched its mainnet blockchain in an enclosed state on December 28, 2021, meaning that the mainnet is live but with a firewall that prevents any unwanted external connectivity.

Moving to open mainnet means that the firewall will be removed, allowing for any external connectivity, for instance, to other networks, wallets, and anyone who wants to connect to the Pi mainnet blockchain.

In an enclosed state, the network allows KYC-ed Pioneers (users of Pi Network) to move their mined coins to their respective wallets (ready to trade amongst KYC-ed Pioneers) and to allow as many non-KYC-ed Pioneers to migrate to the blockchain. This period is also the time to test the resilience of the network and to fine-tune it before open mainnet.

In sharp contrast to industry practice, Pi Network didn’t go for an ICO (initial coin offering) to fund the massive project. They raised private equity the way any other tech startup would do. In that sense, Pioneers don’t have to spend a penny of fiat currency to gain Pi Coins on their smartphones. It is 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.

There are caveats though.

Pi Network, headquartered in Silicon Valley, would enter the open mainnet stage only if three conditions are met. “There is no specific date set. These three essential conditions depend on the collective efforts of Pioneers, community developers, and the Core Team, in addition to uncontrollable external factors,” Pi Network said in its most recent announcement.

The first condition is to finish preparation work in technology, product, business, and legal requirements. The work to achieve this condition will be primarily done by the Core Team, which comprises more than 35 members.

The second is to “reach” a critical mass of KYC identity-verified pioneers on the mainnet blockchain and have diverse utilities of the Pi cryptocurrency in the Pi ecosystem. According to the announcement, the specific targets for meeting this condition are as follows: “Fifteen million Pioneers have passed KYC including fully and tentatively KYC’ed; and 10 million Pioneers have migrated to the mainnet; 100 real Pi apps that are on the mainnet or are mainnet-ready, comply with the Pi platform policies, solve a true need and bring utility to the Pi ecosystem, and are a distinct application.”

As of now, of eight million KYC’ed Pioneers including fully and tentatively KYC’ed, 3.9 million have migrated. Besides, around 40 real Pi apps are on the mainnet.

The announcement says, “This condition will be primarily driven by the decentralised efforts of the community with the Core Team’s support. While the Core Team will continue to provide technical and product support to meet the KYC and migration goals, it will require the community to mobilise itself through decentralised efforts to have more Pioneers join, re-engage, apply, validate and pass in the KYC process, and complete their mainnet checklist to migrate. The utility goals rely on community developers to build and launch Pi apps following the Pi policies with the technical, product, design, program and mentorship support of the Core team.”

The third condition, the latest announcement said, is the absence of an unfavourable external environment, which would hinder the success of Open Network. It explains, “In short, world events affect currencies, and Pi is no different. While we do not control what happens in the world, we do control our launch and will not jeopardise the community’s hard work and dedication with a reckless move to Open Network.”

The announcement states, “The timing of Open Network will need to incorporate these global factors that are beyond the control of the Core Team or the Pioneer community. These factors include macroeconomic crises, unfavourable legal or regulatory developments, industry uncertainties, pandemics, wars, or any number of unpredictable, uncontrollable, and/or unforeseeable external factors inhospitable to the launch of Open Network.”

The new announcement from Pi Network also answered frequently asked questions such as the purpose of KYC (for each Pioneer) and the delays in this process. Several Pioneers on multiple chat rooms of Pi Network often rue the delays, including in announcing a specific date for open mainnet.

Pi Network gives an explanation of its mining rates: The pre-mainnet mining mechanism began at 3.14 Pi per hour and halved whenever the network increased in size by a factor of 10x without a definite maximum supply, starting at 1,000 engaged Pioneers. This occurred five times before the mainnet phase launched on December 28, 2021, when a new mining mechanism along with a clear supply model was introduced.

The statement on its website adds, “Starting March 1, 2022, the declining rewards issuance formula based on the supply model took effect, adjusting the systemwide base mining rate based on a monthly supply limit defined by the formula and replacing the milestone-based halving explained above.”

It goes on, “Generally, the mining rate declines month over month due to the limit of supply, the growing network size and Pioneer mining activity. This formula helps ensure that Pioneer mining rewards are within the total supply limit of 65 billion allocated for mining rewards.” This declining rewards issuance formula along with the new mining mechanism (which went into effect on March 14, 2022) balances the network’s need for growth, accessibility, longevity, and scarcity, says Pi Network, emphasising, “Additionally, it right-sizes the Pioneers’ rewards for contribution to the network.”