Anna Chernetska

Network Pi says it is up to the crypto exchanges to decide whether and when they want to list the coins for trading and not Pi's Core Team.

The mainnet has now been launched. The organisation insists the move is phase three of its deployment plan and that that marks the point where exchanges can list the coin: "Pi will be able to be traded in Phase 3 of the project (i.e. Mainnet). At that point, exchanges can choose to list Pi."

Pi Network has continued to insist it is not running an inital coin offering (ICO) or crowdfunding sale and coins which can be mined in the ecosystem currently stay in the ecosystem.

So called Pioneers, holders of the coins, will have two opportunities to trun the coins into "real' money: "Directly purchasing goods and services with their crypto or exchanging their crypto for fiat currency on cryptocurrency exchanges."

In its white paper the organisation states that in phase three "only accounts validated to belong to distinct real individuals will be honored". This is the so-called Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

It adds: "This is the phase when Pi can be connected to exchanges and be exchanged for other currencies." Many Pioneers are keen for this to happen as they see little value in the coins they have mined if they can't sell them.

The token can still be mined through mobile phones but they can not be traded - essentially they have no value, yet. This lack of transparency has not helped to quell the doubters who fear the idea is a scam.

The team behind it says it is a "genuine effort by a team of Stanford graduates to give everyday people greater access to cryptocurrency". And there are plenty of crypto faithful who see it as an opportunity - and in many cases they have taken that opportunity - to get involved in a cryptocurrency from the ground up and possibly profit sometime in the future. They do this, perhaps, with one eye on some of the early bitcoin (BTC) adopters who have racked up gains from mining and holding the coin.

However, others have likened Pi crypto to a multi-level marketing (MLM) scam that holds no value. As of 14 January there are still no coins being traded; meaning no transactions and no fiat rewards. This also means people haven't lost money, just a bit of phone battery time and personal data to mine coins that can't yet be traded.

So, again, what is Pi Network and how will it work? Have you heard of the new cryptocurrency and are wondering about the worth of Pi coin as a potential investment?

This article provides an overview of what the Pi Network aims to achieve and how the Pi coin price prediction is taking shape.

What is Pi Network?

Pi Network is a digital currency project that aims to keep cryptocurrency mining accessible as the centralisation of first generation currencies like bitcoin has put them beyond the reach of everyday users. The Pi Network, developed by a team of Stanford graduates, enables users to mine coins using its mobile phone app, validating transactions on a distributed record.

Unlike nodes on networks such as Bitcoin that use proof-of-work (PoW) protocols, Pi nodes use an algorithm based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). Pi Nodes validate transactions on a distributed ledger and reach a consensus on the order of new transactions that the ledger records.

Under SCP, PI nodes form security circles, or groups, of three to five trusted people known to each of the networks’ users. Security circles build a global trust network that prevents fraudulent transactions, as transactions can only be validated on the shared ledger if the trusted nodes approve them.

With branding based on the number π, Phase 1 of the project launched in 2019 on Pi Day, 14 March, with a free Pi mining app. By June 2019, the network had more than 100,000 active users. A year later, when Phase 2 launched, there were more than 3.5 million users.

The app started running ads in May 2020 to provide a source of financing for the project.

On 25 November, Pi Network announced the user base had climbed to 29 million, up from 14 million in March 2021.

Pi coin, or PI, is the cryptocurrency that runs on the Pi network, and as with other cryptos such as bitcoin, it was designed to undergo regular “halving” to protect its scarcity. Halving is when the number of coins a miner receives for processing new transactions is reduced by half. It usually occurs when a certain milestone is reached.

PI’s mining rate halved from 1.6 π an hour when it reached 100,000 users, halved again to 0.4 π an hour when it reached 1 million and halved again to 0.2 π when it reached 10 million. It will continue to halve, reaching zero at 1 billion users.

During the project’s current second phase, users can volunteer to test the Pi Node desktop software on their computer. The Pi Wallet and Pi Browser were released for testing on 1 April 2021. And on 28 June, a Developer Portal, software development kit (SDK) and other resources were released.

Phase 3 - the launch of the mainnet - was announced on 29 December.

According to the Pi roadmap, they plan to introduce a Know Your Customer (KYC) solution, expanded developer resources, more apps and community content, along with the mainnet launch.

From 28 June until 30 September, Pi held its first hackathon, #BuildPi2gether, to encourage developers to contribute ecosystem apps to improve Pi’s functionality and business apps to serve a consumer or commerce product. Pi awarded a total of $100,000 and 100,000 PI to the top projects in each category.

PI remains in pre-release mode

If you are wondering how to buy the Pi coin for your portfolio, you can’t. Users who have mined the Pi cryptocurrency will only be able to withdraw or exchange their coins during the project’s third phase when it moves to a decentralised blockchain. PI cannot be transferred during the testing phase in order to prevent fake accounts from accumulating coins, according to the project’s website. Wallet balances are expected to be honoured when PI shifts from the testnet to a mainnet, when the blockchain protocol comes out of development and is fully deployed.

As a result, Pi coin is not yet available to trade on any cryptocurrency exchange or trading platform. The price of PI has yet to be established.

As Phase 3 is now launching, holders will be able to take full control of their private and public wallet keys, and use the coin to buy products and services on Pi’s peer-to-peer marketplace. Without the keys, users cannot transfer or spend the currency they hold.

The PI mining app acts as a cryptocurrency wallet, linked to a user’s mobile phone number or Facebook account. As with other public blockchains, the Pi blockchain will allow external wallets to hold Pi coins and submit transactions directly to the blockchain. However, unlike other blockchains, its developers have not yet released its source code.

Early adopters are accumulating Pi crypto in anticipation that the price will rise sharply after Phase 3 goes live. Although the coin’s mining rate has been reduced by halving, users can increase their mining rate by connecting with other active miners. New users can only join the Pi Network if they have a referral code from another user.

The project’s developers claim that security on the Pi Network is enhanced by personal networks, encouraging users to bring in friends and family – which is prompting scepticism that it could be a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme. However, it is worth noting that users can only earn coins from their own direct networks and not from their connections’ networks, as with an MLM scheme.

In November the organisation starting releasing tech and product updates to give an overview of the work being done behind the scenes in the previous month. October's bulletin said the 'Core Team spent a significant amount of time rolling out new and updated product features in the Pi Ecosystem".

These included its KYC App Pilot and Block Explorer. Having been tested with community moderators, the KYC App Pilot was deployed "on a limited basis" to start the process of verifying Pioneers and to improve the app’s usability and machine automation. The Pi Block Explorer, which helps Pioneers see transaction history and explore transaction data such as sender, receiver, and amount, was also deployed.

Also updated is Pi Wallet where the company has been creating push notifications to alert Pioneers when they receive a payment on the blockchain and fixing a bug for Android users who could not see their wallet passphrase.

The company added that the Brainstorm app now features a redesigned app displaying Hackathon winners, showcasing an improved UI, improved tag functionality for users to create custom tags on their projects and a feature that allows projects to upload logos to their brainstorm page.

Some cryptocurrency observers have already started to make their Pi Network value prediction. Let’s take a look at what the Pi price could likely be when it does start trading.

Pi Network: Pi coin price prediction for 2022–2025

As with other digital coins at launch, the PI cryptocurrency value is likely to start at a relatively low level against the US dollar and rise as usage grows. What do some of the price forecasters suggest?

Both cryptocurrency data provider CoinMarketCap and algorithm-based forecasting site Wallet Investor list a current value of $0.007077 for Pi coin.

In March this year, Wallet Investor had a Pi cryptocurrency prediction of $0.0132, with a downside at $0.00743. However, according to the website, it is no longer updating its forecast.

In March, DigitalCoin’s Pi Network price prediction 2021–2025 calculated that the coin’s price could rise from an average of 0.0108 against the US dollar in 2021 to $0.0128 in 2022 and $0.0212 by 2025. Over the longer-term, it predicted the PI price could average $0.0319 by 2028, suggesting that the Pi coin value in 2030 would be higher. However, the website no longer updates the forecast.

Depending on the number of cryptocurrency users and exchanges that adopt PI, the bull case could see the coin’s price launch at $0.16 and reach $1 a year later, according to crypto exchange Changelly. Over the longer-term, the price could rise to $5 in five years’ time.

It’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts can and do get their predictions wrong.