If you have been active in the crypto space lately, you probably would have heard people talking about the Pi coin and the Pi network.
The Pi coin was introduced in 2019 by Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan. Nicolas Kokkalis holds a doctorate degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. His major work, the Pi Network, is definitely a hit as it has over 50 million downloads on Google Play Store.
What is the Pi coin?
Generally, when new users come into the crypto space, they’re lured by several sites and platforms asking them to mine Bitcoin and other big cryptocurrencies but in reality, they’re all scams as Bitcoin requires a mining rig setup to be able to mine it.
However, Nicolas and his team at Stanford University promised and delivered easy crypto mining with the Pi Network. Users can download the app on their smartphones and begin mining, receiving Pi coins as rewards.
The Pi coin has no fixed total supply and doesn’t have any significant publicly available information about the on-chain data. The Block explorer at the time of this writing doesn’t even show a price for Pi.
What is the Pi Network?
The entire Pi ecosystem is known as Pi Network. The miners, supporters, and holders of the Pi coin are referred to as Pioneers. The Pi Blockchain has been a testnet since 2020. Although there are already migration plans to the mainnet, the mainnet is not fully live yet. After migration to the mainnet, Pioneers will finally be able to use Pi coin as every other cryptocurrency. As of now, the Pi coin remains a reward for its miners in form of a cryptocurrency with a promise to be tradeable in the future, and the value is determined by those trading it through peer-to-peer.
The Pi coin is not listed on any exchange yet, nor does it have any significant liquidity or demand in an open market. All those who have sold or bought it did so through peer-to-peer and they’re mostly buying because of the mainnet launch news and the hope for it to become something big considering the massive community.
Is the Pi Network a scam?
It will be wrong to call a project a scam when it has not taken money from people. All you need to mine Pi is a mobile phone and internet access. You can also increase your Pi mining rate by inviting more people to the network, the more they mine, the more you earn.
However, it’s been 3 years since Pi mining began. It keeps getting popular by the day, yet the mainnet is not fully live. It is hard to believe that in 2022 when web3 developers have increased by a large number, projects like Pi are still maturing slowly.
Let’s not throw away the fact that the Pi app displays ads to Pioneers. With total downloads of 50 million on Android alone, assuming only 10% are active users and they have to open the app every 24hrs to click the “Earn Pi” button. 5 million active users daily is still a huge number in the advertising industry for the founders of Pi to be raking in millions while Pioneers lose “nothing”.
What’s the buzz about Pi?
The Pi Network recently released a migration plan for Pioneers from the testnet to the mainnet. This will enable them to have a Pi wallet, send and receive Pi coins, and probably trade it on exchanges like other cryptocurrencies. Migrating to the Pi mainnet consists of 8 processes that have been explained in detail in this article.
The rush to hold some Pi coins prior to the full mainnet launch is what has caused so many talks about it in the crypto space. Non-pioneers are not sure whether to buy, and Pioneers are also not sure whether to sell or hold.
Conclusion
Keep an eye on this blog for updates concerning the Pi Network and other trending or useful articles in the crypto space.
This article is not to discourage or encourage anyone to mine, buy, or sell Pi. It is simply an article written based on publicly available information which has all been referenced. Whatever decision you make is up to you.
