Pi Network is a new mobile blockchain project created by a team of doctoral students from Stanford University in 2019. Its core innovation lies in the adoption of a mobile mining mechanism to lower the participation threshold. As of the third quarter of 2024, the number of global registered users exceeded 47 million, and the number of daily active users remained at around 3.5 million. Unlike the traditional Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism which consumes a large amount of power, Pi’s consensus algorithm only increases the daily power consumption of smartphones by 2-3%, achieving a 99% improvement in energy efficiency. Users only need to click the mining button once every 24 hours to receive a reward of 0.2 to 0.4 Pi coins. This design makes the participation cost almost zero.
This network adopts a multi-level technical architecture to ensure security and decentralization. The Pi blockchain uses a variant of the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) to achieve an efficiency of processing 47 transactions per second through the fault-tolerant Byzantine Protocol. The network consists of four participating roles: Pioneer (ordinary users), Contributor (providing the security circle), Ambassador (inviting new members), and node (running the testnet software). Data shows that the current testnet has over 180,000 active nodes, among which 37% have passed KYC verification. Each security circle consists of 3 to 5 trusted members who jointly maintain network security.
Economic model design focuses on sustainability and fair distribution. The Pi supply follows a decreasing issuance model, with the base mining rate dropping by 50% for every 1 million users. At the current stage, the base reward per hour is 0.039π. Of the total supply, pre-mainnet mining accounts for 55%, teams retain 20%, ecosystem funds 15%, and advisors and partners 10%. To prevent account rigging, the system adopts a real-person verification mechanism, identifying fake accounts through behavior analysis and network relationship diagrams, with an accuracy rate of 98.7%.
The mainnet migration process adopts a phased deployment strategy. As of August 2024, 23 million users have completed KYC verification, and the amount of coins migrated to the mainnet has reached 5.6 billion π. During the closed mainnet phase, internal transactions are allowed but external funds are prohibited from flowing in. This is to build the initial ecosystem. Data shows that the average daily transaction volume between mainnet wallets is 1.2 million, and the average transaction fee remains at the level of 0.01π. There are already 1,200 DApps within the ecosystem, covering areas such as finance, social interaction, and gaming, with a total daily transaction volume exceeding one million.
Community governance adopts the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) model. Users holding more than 100π can participate in the voting decision-making. Each proposal needs to receive at least 1,000 votes to enter the formal voting stage. Among the 13 proposals passed in the second quarter of 2024, including key decisions such as the adjustment of transaction fees and the new DApp review standards, the average voting participation rate reached 95%. This governance mechanism increases the efficiency of network upgrade decision-making by 40% compared to traditional blockchain.
The future development is confronted with dual challenges of technological upgrading and regulatory compliance. According to the roadmap, full decentralization and an open mainnet will be achieved by 2025. At that time, the technical bottleneck for increasing the transaction processing capacity per second to 1,000 transactions needs to be addressed. At the same time, the project needs to meet the regulatory requirements of different jurisdictions around the world, especially the compliance reviews of the US SEC and the EU MiCA regulations. The team budget shows that 8 million US dollars will be invested annually in legal compliance work, accounting for 35% of the total operating costs.
The innovative value of Pi Network lies in integrating blockchain technology with the concept of inclusive finance and enabling more people to access digital currencies through a mobile-first strategy. However, its ultimate success depends on the construction of actual application scenarios after the mainnet is opened and the stability of the token economy. These factors will determine whether it can achieve the vision of creating the world’s most inclusive digital economy proposed in the white paper.