Pi Network (PI)

Overview

Pi Network is a blockchain project built around a mobile app and a community of users called Pioneers. Its native cryptocurrency, PI, is designed for payments and activity within an ecosystem of apps and services. People can join through a phone rather than buying specialized computer equipment. The project’s main idea is that a cryptocurrency becomes more useful when people can earn it, build with it, and spend it in everyday ways. (minepi.com)

Pi began as a way to introduce more people to cryptocurrency. It now includes its own blockchain, a wallet, identity checks, tools for developers, and apps that accept PI. The network opened connections to outside systems in February 2025, allowing its ecosystem to interact more broadly with other businesses and blockchain services. (minepi.com)

History & Team

Pi Network officially launched on March 14, 2019, when it published its first white paper. Its mobile app had appeared as an early version in December 2018. The project then moved through a test network and an enclosed Mainnet, which began in December 2021. During the enclosed period, the blockchain operated while the team worked on identity checks, wallet transfers, and apps. The Open Network phase began on February 20, 2025. (minepi.com)

The founders are Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan. Kokkalis, the project’s head of technology, studied computer science at Stanford University and has worked on distributed systems and human-computer interaction. Fan, the head of product, earned a Stanford doctorate in anthropological sciences. Her work on human behavior and social computing shapes Pi’s focus on participation and community. A core team develops the network’s main software and services, while independent developers create apps for its users. (minepi.com)

Technology & How It Works

Mobile participation and blockchain records

Pi separates the simple experience in its phone app from the computers that run its blockchain. A Pioneer starts a mining session in the app to take part in the network’s reward system. The phone does not solve energy-heavy puzzles in the way Bitcoin mining equipment does. Instead, Pi’s reward system recognizes activities such as regular participation, helping form trusted groups, running a node, and using ecosystem apps. The resulting balance must pass the network’s checks before eligible PI moves to a Mainnet wallet. (minepi.com)

Pi’s blockchain uses a consensus approach based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol and Federated Byzantine Agreement. Consensus is how network computers agree on a shared record of transactions. Pi also uses Security Circles: groups of people a Pioneer identifies as trusted. Together, these circles help form a trust graph that informs the network’s design. Nodes run on computers and support the blockchain; opening the mobile app is a different activity from operating a node. (minepi.com)

Identity and access

Pi uses Know Your Customer checks, or KYC, to verify individuals before their earned balances can migrate to Mainnet. The process supports its one-person-one-account approach. Businesses seeking their own Mainnet wallet use a separate Know Your Business process, or KYB. Once PI is in a user’s noncustodial Pi Wallet, the wallet holder controls access through a private passphrase. (minepi.com)

The software continues to develop. Protocol upgrades have added a foundation for smart contracts—programs that can carry out agreed steps on a blockchain. Pi has been testing related tools before introducing more of that functionality across its Mainnet ecosystem. (minepi.com)

Tokenomics & Utility

PI has a maximum supply of 100 billion tokens. Its published allocation sets aside 65 billion for past and future community mining rewards, 10 billion for foundation reserves and ecosystem work, 5 billion for liquidity purposes, and 20 billion for the Core Team. These figures describe the full allocation, rather than the number of coins that have reached users’ wallets. (minepi.com)

Mining rewards are meant to encourage activities the network needs. Security Circle participation helps build its trust graph. Node operation supports the blockchain. App use can encourage developers to create services people return to. Pioneers can also choose to lock up PI for a period to increase their future mining rate while they continue to take part. In that arrangement, the lockup changes a reward calculation; understanding the distinction helps explain how Pi distributes new tokens over time. (minepi.com)

PI serves as a means of payment between users and within supported apps. Some services can use it to charge for their work. For example, PiVerify, an identity-verification service offered to outside clients, uses PI for client payments. The token’s practical role therefore depends on both the available software and whether people choose to use it. (minepi.com)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Pi Browser gives users a place to access the wallet and ecosystem apps. Developers can build services that use Pi accounts and payments, while merchants and other users can arrange peer-to-peer transactions. This links the token to activities beyond transfers between wallets: paying for a digital feature, using an app, or taking part in local commerce are all examples of the network’s intended use. (minepi.com)

The project reported more than 100 Mainnet or Mainnet-ready apps before Open Network launched. These apps vary in purpose and stage of development. Pi App Studio later added tools that make app creation easier, including support for eligible apps to accept Mainnet PI payments. This creates a path for a creator to build a service and receive payment from its users within the same ecosystem. (minepi.com)

Identity has become another part of the ecosystem. Pi Sign-in lets Pioneers use their accounts with supported services outside Pi Browser. PiVerify offers identity checks to third-party clients. Pi has also introduced SoloHost, an early-stage desktop framework for running supported local apps. These products show how the project is extending its platform beyond payments alone. (minepi.com)

Advantages & Challenges

Pi’s clearest design advantage is ease of entry. A phone app gives people a familiar starting point, while the network’s reward model recognizes different kinds of participation. Identity checks aim to connect Mainnet accounts to real individuals, which can be useful for services that need to limit duplicate accounts. Its large community also gives developers a ready group of potential users. Pi reported over 60 million engaged Pioneers in 2026; that measure describes participation in its app, rather than a count of people making Mainnet transactions. (minepi.com)

The same design brings practical challenges. KYC, wallet setup, and migration add steps between earning a balance in the app and using PI on the blockchain. Pi has continued to update those processes to address cases that held up eligible users. Its app ecosystem must also turn a large audience into steady use of services people value. Planned tools, including more smart-contract features, need development and testing before they can serve that wider purpose. (minepi.com)

Where to Buy & Wallets

PI is available on Kraken and OKX. Both exchanges have announced PI spot trading, and both appear on Pi Network’s list of KYB-verified businesses. Access to a particular exchange or service depends on the user’s location and the platform’s account requirements. (blog.kraken.com)

Pi Network’s own Pi Wallet is available through Pi Browser. It is a noncustodial wallet: its owner holds the passphrase used to access it. An exchange account works differently because the exchange manages the account-based trading service. Eligible Pioneers can activate a Mainnet wallet through the Pi Wallet app, while earned balances move onto the blockchain through the separate migration process. Users who obtain PI through an exchange can also use supported deposit and withdrawal services to move it between an exchange and a Mainnet wallet. (minepi.com)

Regulatory & Compliance

Pi builds identity checks into access to its Mainnet ecosystem. Individuals use KYC, while businesses seeking Mainnet wallets use KYB. These processes are part of how the network handles participation and business integrations; exchanges and other service providers also operate under requirements tied to where they serve customers. (minepi.com)

In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, sets rules for covered crypto assets and service providers. Pi has published a MiCA-format white paper containing information about the token and network. In the United States, the legal treatment of crypto assets and transactions depends on their features and how they are offered or used; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued interpretive guidance on those questions in 2026. These are different legal frameworks, so an exchange listing or a network identity check does not, by itself, settle every regulatory question about PI. (minepi.com)

Halal or Shariah assessment calls for a separate review of how PI is acquired and used. Its payment uses, mining rewards, voluntary lockups, and the terms of any exchange service are relevant features to examine. Islamic finance treatment of digital assets can depend on both the asset and the setting in which it is traded: Malaysia’s Securities Commission, for example, describes conditions under which digital-asset trading on a registered exchange is permissible under its Shariah framework. That framework provides a way to assess PI, rather than a universal ruling for every PI transaction. (minepi.com)

Future Outlook

Pi’s next stage centers on making its network more useful to developers, businesses, and everyday users. Work on smart contracts could support features such as subscriptions and other automated app functions. The Pi Launchpad has been introduced on Testnet to test how apps might create their own utility tokens. Those tests are a development step, while Mainnet use depends on further work. (minepi.com)

The team has also outlined an approach to bringing stablecoins into the ecosystem for situations that need more predictable payment values. Its stated plan keeps PI as the network’s primary cryptocurrency, with stablecoins in a supporting role. Alongside continued Mainnet migrations, the value of these efforts to users will come from services that are completed, accessible, and used regularly. (minepi.com)

Summary

Pi Network combines a mobile entry point, an identity-verified community, its own blockchain, and an expanding set of apps. PI connects those parts through rewards and payments. Its place in the broader crypto ecosystem will be shaped by how well the network turns widespread participation into lasting, practical use. (minepi.com)