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How to Sign Up

There are currently three methods you may use to sign up:

1. with Facebook

2. with phone number

3. Apple ID

If you already have a Facebook account, you can connect your Facebook account to the Pi App. For future logins, you simply choose “Continue with Facebook,” enter in your Facebook email address and password into the Facebook interface and will be able to open the Pi App. This is similar to logging into other third-party apps through Facebook. 

If you would like to create an account with your phone number, then you will also be asked to create a password. For future logins, you will enter your phone number and password.

For Apple Sign-in, please follow the directions, confirm that you allow Pi to sign in with your Apple ID. Please note that your name associated with your Apple ID should match the name on your government-issued ID. Users that sign up with Apple ID will not be able to change the name on the account.

Can I have more than one option?

Yes! However, if you want to the Apple Sign-in option, you must sign up with Apple. If you start with Facebook or your mobile phone number, you will not have the Apple Sign-in option later.

Depending of the method you used to sign up, you will be able to add the other method later after signup on your Profile page inside the app. After adding the second method, you can choose to have two different methods of login. 

Where can I find an invitation code?

If someone sent you an invite in a message, please use their username as the invitation code. If you found the Pi App on your own, invitation codes can be found on social media very easily.

Facebook Troubleshooting

If you receive an error message along the way, you may have to go through the  "Continue with Facebook" process twice. The first time, you may have to enter your email address and password associated with Facebook. When you have to start over again and click on "Continue with Facebook" the second time, you should not have to put in your Facebook credentials, and simply follow the directions to continue.

Also, check your Facebook settings to ensure that you have allowed the Pi App to connect to your Facebook account. In Facebook, under "Settings," you need to go to "Apps and Websites" and make sure that you have "Turned on" the setting. 

Phone Number and General Troubleshooting

Please try to sign up under different conditions (and these would be different attempts to sign up):

Sign up attempt 1: Turn your phone off and then back on

Sign up attempt 2: Turn off your wifi (and use your data)

Sign up attempt 3: Try with your VPN on

Sign up attempt 4: Try with your VPN off

NOTE: When there is high traffic to the Pi app, this function may not be successful. So, please try again at a later time.

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How to Sign In - I forgot how I signed up, or I forgot my password

It is important that you sign into the Pi App through the original method you used to register your account, i.e. Facebook or phone number with password. If you use a different method or different phone number from your original method during account registration, you will create a completely new account with no Pi mined yet inside. This does NOT mean the Pi in your original account is lost. Thus, if you are ever asked to enter first and last name or a username when trying to sign in, please stop. Do not create a new account with this sign-in method, and try the other method (Facebook vs. Phone number) or a different phone number of yours.

Generally, try the following ways to see if you can retrieve your original account:

1. Try to sign in via Facebook by clicking on "Continue with Facebook." (If you receive an error that takes you back to the login page, go through the process one more time.)

2. Try to sign in with the phone number associated with the account by clicking on "Continue with phone number".

3. If you forgot your password while you "Continue with phone number" or if you do not receive the verification code, try to do account recovery by clicking on "Password forgotten?" or "recover account".

4. Sometimes, your settings can affect the login. Please try to sign in under different conditions (and these would be different attempts to sign in):

• Sign-in attempt 1: Turn your phone off and then back on

• Sign-in attempt 2: Turn off your wifi and use data

• Sign-in attempt 3: Try with your VPN on (or off)

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How to Sign In - With Facebook

Instructions

If your account is verified with Facebook: 

1. Click on “Continue with Facebook” on the login page

2. If it asks if “pinetwork” Wants to Use “facebook.com” to Sign in, click on “continue”.

3. Log in to your Facebook page or app, where you may need to enter your Facebook credentials. Or if you’re already signed in, click on “Continue”.

4. If it asks if “Facebook” wants to open “Pi”, click on “Open”.

Troubleshooting

If you receive an error message along the way, you may have to go through the  "Continue with Facebook" process twice. The first time, you may have to enter your email address and password associated with Facebook. When you have to start over again and click on "Continue with Facebook" the second time, you should not have to put in your Facebook credentials, and simply follow the directions to continue.

If you still cannot sign in, then please try to sign in under different conditions (and these would be different attempts to sign in):

Sign in attempt 1: Turn your phone off and then back on

Sign in attempt 2: Turn off your wifi (and use your data)

Sign in attempt 3: Try with your VPN on

Sign in attempt 4: Try with your VPN off

Also, check your Facebook settings to ensure that you have allowed the Pi App to connect to your Facebook account. In Facebook, under "Settings," you need to go to "Apps and Websites" and make sure that you have "Turned on" the setting. 

When there is high traffic to the Pi app, this function may not be successful. So, you may have to try multiple times on different days or times.

Bug Reporting

There are no known bugs logging in using Facebook credentials. If you are unable to log in via Facebook, it is possible that you may have registered your account with a phone number and password.

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How to Sign In - With Phone Number

If your account is registered or verified with your phone number, to login into your account, click on “Continue with phone number,” enter the phone number that you used at the time of registration (unless you changed your phone number during a testing phase), and follow the instructions.

If you know your password

• Click on “Continue with phone number” on the login page.

• Select your country code, enter your phone number, and press the “Go” button.

• Enter your password, and press the “Submit” button.

If you forgot your password

Click on “Continue with phone number” on the login page.

1. Select your country code, enter your phone number, and press the “Go” button.

2. Click on the blue hyperlink “Password forgotten?”

3. Click on the green “RECOVER ACCOUNT” button.

4. Enter or confirm your phone number including the country code, and click the orange “SUBMIT” button.

5. Click on the orange "open sms" button.

6. Click on the white "open sms" button.

7. You will have a code in your text box, and you send the code.

Note: If you have a new phone number and forgot your password, you will not be able to use this method to login. If you verified with Facebook, then you will have another method to log in.

Or if you have trouble sending the code, try the manual instructions

• Click on the Manual Instructions hyperlink.

• Go out of the Pi app to create a text message to the recipient with the code listed on the screen, and send it.

•  Go back to the Pi app click on "textI have sent the ".

Troubleshooting

If you still cannot sign in, then please try to sign in under different conditions (and these would be different attempts to sign in):

Sign in attempt 1: Turn your phone off and then back on

Sign in attempt 2: Turn off your wifi (and use your data)

Sign in attempt 3: Try with your VPN on

Sign in attempt 4: Try with your VPN off

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How to Verify Your Pi Account

Do I need to do verification with my phone number or Facebook?

At this time, Pioneers are not required to do verification with their phone number or Facebook in order to mine. They can continue to mine and maintain the Pi mined, even if they’re unverified. If you can verify your phone number right now given our current phone verification methods, please do. If, for some reason, you can’t verify your phone number with our current methods, there is no need to hurry or worry right now. You can continue mining and more verification methods may be provided later for you to complete that. In the future, you will need to verify your phone number before the Mainnet in order to claim the Pi that you have mined, unless you have verified by Facebook. If you have verified your Pi account with Facebook, then you are not required to verify your phone number.

Which form of verification is best?

Some Pioneers will have more than one option of verification. Choose the option that best fits your needs. Consider how you would like to sign in. If you have a Facebook profile, would you like to use your Facebook credentials to log in? Would you prefer to sign in with a password and your phone number?  Also, consider what login method is easier if a password is forgotten. 

In the future, more than one verification method will be available to Pioneers. If you are able to verify with the two different methods, then you will also have two different ways to log in.

How do I verify my account with my phone number?

If you have the option to verify with this method, you will see a “VERIFY” button beside this option on the “Profile” page. If the option is not available, you will see an “N/A” beside that option.

1. Go to the “Profile” page

2. Click on the “VERIFY” button on the right side of “Phone verification”

3. Depending on your country, you may have different options, so please follow the directions.

   1. If you have a phone number in the US, UK, Belgium, or Israel, you may receive a text message with a code, and then enter the code on the next screen.

   2. If you do not have a phone number in the US, UK, Belgium, or Israel, then choose either one country to send an SMS text message, and then click on the green “START” button. Then press the send in your text message app. Carrier messaging rates will apply. Please make sure you have enabled international SMS text messaging with your cell phone carrier. Sometimes, they may charge you even if the text is not successful. Also, you may have success with one number but not another, so you may need to try more than one country.

   3. Also note that there are “Manual Instructions” if you have trouble with the two methods above.

Troubleshooting

When there is high traffic to the Pi app, this function may not be successful. So, you may have to try multiple times on different days or times.

If you receive an error, please go through the process again. If you still cannot get verified, then please try under different conditions (and these would be different attempts):

Verification attempt 1: Turn your phone off and then back on

Verification attempt 2: Turn off your wifi (and use your data)

Verification attempt 3: Try with your VPN on

Verification attempt 4: Try with your VPN off

We currently offer 4 different phone numbers for phone verification - US, UK, Belgium, and Israel. If you do not live in these countries, you will need to enable international SMS texting, and you should check with your cell phone provider that you have this capability on your cell phone plan. You may have success using one phone number over another, so if you fail with one country's phone number, try another one. For example, if your provider is Hamrah Aval in Iran, please use the Belgium phone number.

There are certain cell phone providers that may block the text message. If you are not able to verify your account after multiple tries, it is likely that the texts may be blocked by your cell phone provider. We are exploring solutions for these kinds of cases.

How do I verify my account with Facebook?

If you have the option to verify with this method, you will see a “VERIFY” button beside this option on the “Profile” page. If the option is not available, you will see an “N/A”. If you have the option to verify via Facebook, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the “VERIFY” button. 

2. If it asks if “pinetwork” Wants to Use “facebook.com” to Sign in, click on “continue”.

3. Log in to your Facebook page or app, where you may need to enter your Facebook credentials. 

4. Grant permissions

5. If it asks if “Facebook” wants to open “Pi”, click on “Open”.

Troubleshooting

1. You should have the Facebook app downloaded to your phone.

2. Sign into the Facebook App on your phone.

3. Check your settings to allow other apps to connect to your Facebook account. Specifically, under "Settings," you need to go to "Apps and Websites" and make sure that you have "Turned on" the setting.

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How do I mine Pi?

Press the mining button (or lightning icon) to start a 24-hour mining session. After the 24-hour session is over, you may press the mining button to start a new mining session. 

When can I withdraw?

You cannot withdraw Pi yet. You will be able to withdraw Pi or exchange Pi for other currencies in Phase 3 of the project when Pi transitions to a fully decentralized blockchain.

Pi launched Phase 1 of the project on 3/14/2019 (Pi Day). During Phase 1, your balances are being recorded with a guarantee of being honored when Pi transitions to the Mainnet (Phase 3), unless there is violation of Pi policies, e.g. creation of fake accounts. Transfers of Pi are restricted until we reach the Mainnet to prevent bad actors from accumulating Pi from fake accounts. For example, a bad actor could mine from fake accounts, transfer the Pi to a legitimate account, and then pass through Pi’s account verification process despite their illicit gains. We are still refining the exact development timeline for the project. For more details, please refer to the Roadmap section of our White Paper: Pi Whitepaper

How can I exchange Pi for fiat currency?

There is currently no place to buy or sell Pi. In other words, Pi is not on any trading exchange.

Please be careful of scam websites that claim to trade or exchange Pi. 

You can currently earn Pi by clicking on the mining button every 24 hours, and by building your security circle, and by inviting new members to join your earning team. 

When can I transfer Pi?

In-app transfers are currently not available yet. Please be careful of scams that claim to sell or transact in Pi Network coin. We will make an announcement in the app when transactions will be available. 

Only a small number of Pioneers that were part of the pilot program have the ability to transfer Pi. Selling or trading Pi for fiat or cryptocurrencies is a violation of the terms of service. Please report these violations.

Why isn’t my Pi increasing?

You can see a counter at the top of your app screen with your balance of Pi, which you will see increase if you are presently mining. The counter may be stopped if we are in Pi Lite Mode, when we are performing maintenance.

The lightning button will show your mining rate, which will change depending on the number of active miners on your earning team. The lightning button will be green when you are presently mining.

Why has my Pi balance decreased?

A Pi balance may decrease if you sign out of the app before the end of the 24-hour mining session. In other words, you may lose the Pi that was mined from the beginning of the mining period to the time you signed out. There should be a warning message before you sign out. The best time to sign out of the app is after the 24-hour mining session, so that you don’t lose what you have mined for the day. 

Another reason could be that you may be in temporary Lite Mode which shows you the balance at your last tap on the lightning button when the mining session starts, making it look like a decrease in your total Pi. Your Pi balance is safe and will be updated when the app returns to full mode.

If this does not explain why you may have seen a reduction in your Pi balance, please submit a support request.

If you sign out of the app before the end of your mining cycle, you will lose the Pi earned during that mining cycle. If you need to sign out, the best time would be after your mining cycle.

When I signed in, my Pi balance was 0. What happened?

It’s likely that you created a new account, rather than signing into your original account. Please read the related article How to sign in - I forgot how I signed up.

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Referral Team & Invitation Code

How do I get more members for my referral team?

Your referral team is made up of your Inviter and the people that you invite. So, you can build your own referral team by giving your invitation code to others. If you go to the referral Team page, click on the purple “INVITE” button, which will allow you to send your invitation code to your phone contacts, or you may “USE OTHER CHANNELS” to send your invitation code. 

You are allowed to post your invitation code on social media, and you may find other creative solutions to post your invitation code. Please do not post your invitation code in Pi Chat rooms because everyone in the chat rooms are already Pioneers previously invited by someone else. Invitation code is meant for you to invite new members to Pi Network and forming your referral team with them.

Can I change to a different referral team? 

A Pioneer cannot transfer to a different referral team because the change of referral team would trigger complex retrospective re-calculations of all previous mining rates in every single mining session of the new inviter, the old inviter and the Pioneer who wants to switch to a different referral team. So we do not support this process that is not only wasteful of computing power but also creating inconsistent user experience and balances for the Pioneers other than the requester. 

Remember that your referral team is made up of your Inviter and the people that you invite. So, you can build your own referral team by inviting others. 

If you have a friend with a large referral team with a high mining rate, joining your friend’s team does not change your own referral team or mining rate because your mining rate is based on your referral team members, not your friend’s team members.

My invitee made a mistake with the invitation code and did not end up on my referral team. Can I get my invitee back to my referral team?

A Pioneer cannot transfer to a different referral team because the change of referral team would trigger complex retrospective re-calculations of all previous mining rates in every single mining session of the new inviter, the old inviter and the Pioneer who wants to switch to a different referral team. So we do not support this process that is not only wasteful of computing power but also creating inconsistent user experience and balances for the Pioneers other than the requester.

May I remove a member from my referral team?

Technically no, especially for all real human members of the referral team, because referral team structure not only relates to mining bonus, but also captures the history of who invited whom into the network.

However, you can remove a member from your referral team chat, or report a referral team member as a fake account to the system, if you really think they are fake accounts. The report-fake feature also automatically removes them from your referral team chat. Then you can use the Filter feature to “Hide reported” to make them disappear from your referral team interface.

If you have an inactive team member, you can hide an inactive team member with the use of the filter feature on the referral Team page.

If you have someone harassing your referral team chat, you can remove a member from your referral team chat by going to the menu in the upper right corner in your referral team chat and click on “Remove from chat”.

Is there a limit to the number of people I can invite?

There is no limit. You can invite as many people as you want. 

What happens if I have referral team members that are inactive?

Your mining rate increases when your referral team members are also active and mining along with you. If members of your referral team are inactive, then you do not get the mining bonus, but there is no negative effect to your mining rate. 

You remind your referral team members to mine by clicking on “PING INACTIVE,” and inactive members of your team will receive a notification reminder.

What happens if I have referral team members that are fake accounts?

If you have referral team members that are fake accounts, then the mining bonus earned from them will be deleted before going to the Mainnet in Phase 3. 

We recognize that it may be unfortunate to see a reduction of your balance due to deletion of such bonuses. However, it was an unfair gain in the first place because Pi Policies have defined that Pi only goes to real human beings with  one account per person, and stated that all Pi mined or incurred by fake accounts will be destroyed.  If it is unfair for people to keep Pi that is earned from fake accounts. Imagine a bad actor who created many fake accounts to earn Pi at a higher rate. In order to maintain trustworthiness and fairness in our network, we cannot allow anyone to earn Pi unfairly through any types of rewards from fake accounts.

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Security Circle

How do I add to my Security Circle? 

After three 24-hour mining cycles, you will be able to add members to your Security Circle.

You should be able to add your earning team members to your Security Circle by following these directions:

1. Click on the shield icon on the homescreen

2. Click on "add an existing Pi user" button

3. Click on the orange "add" button beside their name

And then there should be a green check mark by their name, which completes the process! 

How do I add to my Security Circle from my phone contacts?

You may be able to add another Pioneer by clicking on the “ADD FROM CONTACTS” button if that person has registered their phone number. Sometimes, you may see a green Pi logo by their name, or you may simply know that they are already a Pioneer. Click on their name, and then click on “CONFIRM”. 

How do I add to my Security Circle from my Facebook friends?

Currently, there is not a way for Pioneers to add or search for other Facebook-verified Pioneers, e.g. there is currently no way to view your friends list to see which Facebook friends have a Pi account. Facebook-verified users can add members from their earning team, and they can add members from their phone contacts (see two previous questions above).

How many people can I add to my Security Circle?

If you have already added 5 members to your Security Circle, then you have achieved the maximum number of members of your security circle that can accrue to your base mining rate. You can still add more people to your security circle, but the additional members beyond 5 will not contribute to an increase in your mining rate. The other way to increase your mining rate is to invite more people into your Earning Team through bonuses. Pi rewards Pioneers for contributions to both the security (Security Circle) and growth (Earning Team) of the network.

Please remember that by adding a person to your security circle you confirm that the person is a human being that you trust, and this is why you earn the mining rate bonus.

What if I don’t have anyone to add to my Security Circle?

You are still able to stay on the application and mine Pi. If you add people to your Security Circle, then you will increase your mining rate.

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Account Settings

Changes to your account cannot be made via email or the Support Portal, since we have no means to securely verify the request is coming from the genuine account holder. In other words, we cannot process a request to change your name, username, phone number, nor password.  Please refer to the following subsections for more details on each account properties.  If you would like to be added to an email list to be notified when an in-app feature is available, please fill out the email request form here.

How do I change my name on the account?

The Core Team does not manually process name changes nor correct errors. Previously, all existing Pioneers have been offered the chance of a 3-day period to update their name inside the app within a grace period, and new Pioneers can update their name within the first two weeks of sign-up, unless the new Pioneer uses AppleID as the registration method. 

For AppleID users, the name associated with the Pi account is whatever Apple Sign-in gives to Pi, so it is important that Pioneers have their real first and last names associated with their AppleID before they sign up for a new Pi account using Apple Sign-In. 

A name update appeal feature is available in the Pi App Profile (except if you signed up with AppleID). You can submit an appeal to potentially make corrections. Name update appeals will only accept changes that would generally still reflect the same human being, e.g. minor changes to spelling, switching first name and last names, adding a middle name, adding a prefix/suffix or aligning it with the name displayed on your identity document. 

A complete name change that has no resemblance to the current name and suggests two completely different people will be rejected. 

Please note that name appeals will take time to process due to the case-by-case complexity, and they will be processed as a later part of our overall KYC process. So if you submit an appeal, please be patient. 

Here’s how to submit an appeal:

1. From the Pi home screen, tap on the ≡ icon in the upper left corner to open up the Pi sidebar menu.

2. Tap on “Profile.”

3. Below “Settings,” click the orange “See How” button next to “ask to change your name.”

4. Review your current inputted name and then tap “Appeal Name Change” in the bottom right corner.

5. From here, follow the in-app instructions. 

Please be aware that the name on the Profile may be different from your first and last name because either 1) your “nickname” or “usual name” is the name that will appear in your Profile, or 2) you used Apple Sign-In as your registration method.

How do I change my username on the account?

Usernames are not supposed to be changed.  Currently, there is not an option within the application to change the username. In the future, we hope to have a feature inside the application, where you will be able to request for a username change, if the username contains vulgarity or personal data (like your name or phone number).

How do I change my phone number on the account?

Currently, there is not an option within the application to change your phone number.

In the future, there will be a feature inside the application, where you will be able to change your phone number (with restrictions). The Core Team has spent a lot of time carefully designing this feature to ensure that it cannot be abused by bots or fake accounts. This is an important feature, but there is no timeline for release of this feature. 

Please make sure that you remember your password. If you log out and need to log back in, you can log back in with the old phone number and password. If you forget the password, then there is no way to recover that account with the phone number. So, please keep your password safe. (Another way to ensure that you can sign into your account is also verifying your account via Facebook.)

How do I change the password on the account?

Currently, there is not an option within the application to change the password.

If you have forgotten the password and are signed out of the app, then you will need to go through the account recovery process, where you will create a new password before you enter the application.

How do I delete my account?

Inside the application, you can initiate the deletion process on your own. If you are logged into your account, go to the menu in the upper left corner, then go to the “Profile” page, and click on the button “SEE HOW” to start the process.

Or if you abandon the account, then it will later fail verification and not be part of the Mainnet. 

How do I delete a second account? I accidentally made more than one account, and I do not want to be banned.

• If you can log into your second account, you can initiate the deletion process on your own. Go to the menu in the upper left corner, then go to the “Profile” page, and click on the button “SEE HOW” to start the process. 

If you are unable to log into the second account, we hope to have a feature inside the application in the future, where you will be able to declare a duplicate account and request for it to be deleted. Please make sure that you declare the duplicate account to avoid violations of the terms of service.

 Can I change the Facebook profile linked to my Pi account?

At present, it is not possible to change the Facebook account with which the Pi account is verified, even if you unlink the Pi app from your old Facebook account. 

If you registered your Pi account using Facebook, please make sure to add a telephone number and a password, so that in the extreme case of a block or hack into your Facebook account, you will still be able to access your Pi account using your phone number and password.

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Pi KYC

What is KYC?

Pi Network KYC or “Know Your Customer” is a procedure to first identify and then verify Pioneer identities, to comply with regulations and to ensure that Pioneers within the global Pi Ecosystem are real individuals.

The vision of Pi Network is to build an inclusive and the most widely-distributed digital currency and ecosystem for all Pioneers. Pi Network’s mining mechanism is social-network based and relies on contributions of real Pioneers. Therefore, Pi has a strict policy of one account per person. 

This requires a high degree of accuracy to establish that members in the network are genuine human beings, preventing individuals from being able to hoard Pi by creating fake accounts unfairly. KYC thus helps ensure the true humanness of the network. 

Who is Eligible for KYC?

• General Eligibility: Users may first become eligible to apply for KYC if they have mined Pi for at least 30 days (nonconsecutive). Geographical Coverage: The KYC solution is designed to accommodate users from over 230 countries and regions, ensuring inclusivity across diverse populations.

• Ineligibility: A small number of accounts flagged by algorithms as potential violators of terms of service may not be immediately eligible even after 30 days of mining. These cases will be reviewed.

Why is KYC Important?

• Identity Verification: KYC helps verify the identity of users, distinguishing genuine accounts from fraudulent ones.

• Fair Distribution: It supports Pi’s policy of one account per person, preventing individuals from hoarding Pi through fake accounts.

• Regulatory Compliance: The KYC process ensures compliance with international regulations, fostering a compliant and secure environment for all users.

• Mainnet Migration: Completing KYC is essential for Pioneers to migrate their Pi balance to the Pi Mainnet and participate in the Mainnet ecosystem.

How Does KYC Work?

Pi Network’s KYC solution addresses accuracy and privacy, while achieving scalability for millions of KYC, wide coverage of diverse populations, and accessibility. 

• Machine Automation: Machine automation will be responsible for processing, analyzing, and obfuscating Pioneer information.

• Human Verification: In certain instances where the user needs further verification after being processed, human Validators may then have to check certain parts of the obfuscated information and submitted documents. 

  • To protect individual Pioneers’ privacy, personal data—except for data that needs further verification—will be properly redacted. 

  • Human Validators will be previously KYC’d Pioneers who opt in to work as a crowdworker in the KYC app to verify information.

To ensure the integrity of the network, certain Pioneers will require additional verification checks before they can fully pass KYC—cautiously allowing as many real human Pioneers as possible to pass KYC, while catching and preventing as many fake and bot accounts as possible. While the Core Team has and continues to release updates to unblock these corner cases, note that this does not apply to the vast majority of KYC applications.

How to Complete KYC

1. Download the Pi Browser

   • Download the Pi Browser app created by “Pi Community Company” in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store.

2. Access the KYC App:

   • Tap the KYC app in the home screen of the Pi Browser.

   • Or, enter “http://kyc.pinet.com ” in the address bar located at the top of the Pi Browser.

3. Prepare Documents:

   • Have your relevant identification documents ready before starting the process.

4. Start the Application:

   • Open the KYC app in Pi Browser.

   • Follow the on-screen instructions to begin your KYC application.

5. Document Submission:

   • Upload clear, readable images of your identification documents as requested. Images and videos should be clear and only contain one person.

   • Ensure all information is legible and matches your Pi account details. Data entered in the form should be in the same language as shown on the ID document.

6. Wait for Results

   • The time needed to get your results depends on several factors, but it can take as little as less than a day.

   • Keep an eye out for notifications about your KYC application. You may be required to submit additional documentation or appeal certain decisions before your KYC application can be accepted.

KYC for Minors

• Age Restriction: Currently, KYC is only available for users 18 and older.

• KYC option for Minors: The Pi Core Team has developed a solution for minors:

  • Minors can enter their date of birth when starting a KYC application

  • The KYC Grace Period countdown timer will pause for minors until they turn 18.

Grace Period and Countdown Timer

To help prepare the network and accelerate Pi’s progress towards reaching Open Network in 2024, we’ve enacted the Grace Period that requires Pioneers to complete KYC and Mainnet migration within specific deadlines to avoid forfeiting most of your Pi other than Pi mined within the rolling window of the last 6 months before your Pi is migrated.

For Pioneers who became eligible for KYC before July 1st, 2024:

1. Submit your KYC application in the KYC app in the Pi Browser as soon as possible before January 31, 2024.

2. Complete the Mainnet Checklist to migrate to Mainnet by December 31, 2024.

In some cases, such as system delays, the Grace Period timer may pause to give you more time. Read the full Grace Period blog to understand how the Grace Period and your specific deadlines work. 

Further Information

Check out these resources for more information about KYC:

• What is Pi Network KYC?

• Become a KYC Validator

• KYC and Mainnet Migration Grace Period

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How to Set Up a Node

For assistance with the Node installation steps, please check out our other community Wiki page here:https://github.com/pi-node/instructions/wiki . If this other wiki does not help you resolve your issue, you may also submit an "issue" on the Github page. Also, you may receive additional guidance by going to the Node Applicants chat rooms in the application if you have submitted the application before May 1st, 2020.

Please note that this is a testing phase, the purpose of which is to surface issues experienced by diverse hardware, software and internet connections of our distributed community. Our goal is to enable as many Node applicants to successfully install these steps as possible. After that, we can calibrate the requirements of the device hardware and software necessary for achieving a reliable and secure network. Even if you are currently unsuccessful at completing all the steps, this still provides us with useful information as we make any necessary improvements to accommodate a greater variety of devices from our community.

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Chat

Chat Room Rules

The Pi Network DOES NOT allow the following behavior:

• Vulgarity

• Personal attacks

• Spam/Advertising

• Violations of chat room rules may result in you being silenced in the room.

Key words

H =  Host of Earning Team

M = Community Moderator

FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions

IAT = In-App Transfer (Only pilot members have this capability for testing purposes.)

KYC = Know your customer (means checking real humans for bots, fake accounts and farms.)

How can I join a chat room?

Go to the + button in the lower right corner within Chat. You can then click any green + button to add a new chat room.

How do I turn off a chat room?

Go to the + button in the lower right corner within Chat. If you are able to remove a chat room, you can click the red button - to remove the chat room. Predefined chat rooms cannot be removed.

How can I turn on chat notifications for a chat room?

Go to the chat room where you want to turn on notifications. In the upper right corner, click on the bell.

How to disable chat notifications from a chat room?

Go to the chat room where you want to turn off notifications. In the upper right corner, click on the bell, so when it rings, it means that this chat room notifications are turned off.

Why can't I post links?

Most links are not allowed to protect Pioneers from fraud and advertisements.

Why can't I post in a chat room?

If there is a violation of the chat room rules, a post can be blocked, or a Pioneer can be silenced.

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Pi Browser and Pi Wallet

Pi Browser

The Pi Browser intends to provide a web experience into a decentralized world. In addition to supporting any Web2.0 applications like existing web browsers, the Pi Browser will enable people to browse, interact and transact in decentralized applications — applications that integrate with blockchain technology — for a seamless and friendly user experience. Additionally, the Pi Browser will have a directory of selected Pi Apps and its own DNS system to support a whole new class of .pi domains. For example, current apps — Pi Wallet, Pi Chats, Mining, Brainstorm — will be accessible by typing in respectively wallet.pi, chats.pi, mine.pi and brainstorm.pi in the URL field of the browser. In the future, more Pi apps by third-party developers will be selected and added to the directory and be accessed through similar .pi URLs. Developers will also be able to start iterating on their app through non-pi domains earlier.

The Pi Browser is a more open Pi Apps platform because it enables developers to test and deploy the applications that integrate with the Pi Testnet, Pi Wallet and other elements of the Pi tech stack. It can do this without the limitation of the approval process or confinement of the old Pi Utilities platform inside the Pi mining app because anyone can visit any website freely on the Pi Browser. By contrast, it used to be that apps must be selected by the Core Team to be embedded in the Pi Utilities platform inside the Pi mining app. Later, we will update the Pi platform SDK to integrate with the Testnet and Test-Pi transactions for Pi Apps that allow developers to test their Pi apps on Testnet from their own domains.

Moreover, Pi Browser is basically the new interface of the Pi Apps/Utilities Platform. The Pi Browser aims to create a more open and direct Pi Utilities platform where developers can easily develop, test and deploy Pi Apps for Pioneers to try and use in the future. As a general-purpose browser tool, it is still primitive, but it is the only browser that can support Pi applications. Currently, the browser is in its beta version, and more changes and features will be added later.

The mobile version of the Pi Wallet is inside the Pi Browser app. The Pi Wallet is an important milestone in Pi’s strategy of progressive decentralization towards the Mainnet because every Pioneer will be able to interact with the Testnet blockchain through their wallets by creating Test-Pi transactions. We are also preparing more for the Pi Mainnet both in terms of 1) community readiness and 2) improvements towards the blockchain and its scalability, as the community tests transactions on the Testnet.

Why are the Pi Wallet and Pi Browser bundled together? Having the wallet inside the Pi Browser App will ultimately allow future Pi Apps and traditional businesses to easily integrate Pi Payments and interact with the Pi blockchain. This will enable Pioneers to have seamless decentralized web experiences, i.e. easily perform Pi blockchain transactions when visiting specific Pi App websites. This is a big evolution of the Pi Utilities platform and the Core Team’s effort on building the Pi ecosystem. Below is a more detailed introduction of the Pi Browser. The Core Team will determine with the community’s feedback as to whether we will maintain two mobile apps (i.e. mining app and browser app) or merge them into one in the future.

Pi as Pi Network becomes more decentralized, the browser will be able to match the network’s decentralization progress. Ultimately in the future, Pioneers can access both apps listed on the Pi Directory and unlisted apps directly through their URLs, and make the ultimate decisions of whether those apps are trustworthy or not without the strict oversight of the Pi Core Team. Through this vision, the selection process for the directory would not necessarily impede goods apps from being developed, deployed, tested or used by Pioneers.

Pi Wallet

To introduce the Pi Wallet, it’s worth briefly going over what a crypto wallet is. A crypto wallet is essentially a pair of “keys”: a public Address and a secret Passphrase (or a secret key). While the wallet address must be shared with others to transact with you on the blockchain, the passphrase must be kept secret as it is like a password to your bank account required to move any assets. Today, the launch of the Pi Wallet means that Pioneers are invited to generate their wallet Address and Passphrase.

The Pi Wallet can generate wallet addresses on multiple blockchains and hold different crypto assets on such blockchains using the same passphrase, but initially we are focusing on Pi assets only. Currently, it is only connected to the Pi Testnet blockchain, hence it only holds Test-Pi for testing purposes. When the Mainnet launches in Phase 3, the same Pi Wallet can also connect with the Pi Mainnet, thus holding the real Pi you will have mined at that time. As we’re in the phase of the Testnet, the purpose is to make improvements on everything including the wallet, thus it is a possibility that we may ask everyone to completely reset their wallets with Test-Pi before moving to Mainnet. Pioneers will also have the choice to reset their wallet by choice before Mainnet is live.

In general, crypto wallets are categorized into custodial and non-custodial wallets with a difference in whether there is someone else helping you manage your passphrase/secret key or assets in the wallet. The Pi Wallet is a non-custodial wallet, because the Pi servers never have access to your secret key or passphrase. To be more user-friendly and based on feedback from early testing Pioneers, the Pi Wallet secret key is represented by a list of more legible words called “Passphrases''.  The secret key can be dynamically derived from the passphrase so people only need to store a passphrase without actually saving a secret key. Using passphrases instead of the derived secret key for safekeeping reduces the chance of human mistakes in recording, and at the same time, achieves the same level of security as the secret key itself. In the mobile version of the Pi Wallet, if your phone has biometric authentication (fingerprint or face recognition), the passphrases are safely stored on your phone and can be retrieved through fingerprint or FaceID.

Although a non-custodial crypto wallet provides the self-sovereignty benefits for people, a difficult problem for any crypto assets holder is the case of losing their secret key or passphrases - the account recovery problem. The Pi Wallet is and will be a non-custodial wallet, and we aim to also innovate a mechanism to solve the difficult account recovery problem by utilizing part of your security circle while maintaining its non-custodial property. This mechanism will be released in a later version of the wallet.

After your Pi Wallet is created, the Pi Testnet faucet will initiate it with 100 Test-Pi for you to test transactions with Test-Pi on the Testnet, just like you would on the Mainnet after its launch in Phase 3 (the end of this year). We want to emphasize that Test-Pi (or test-π) is NOT REAL Pi! This does not enable trading of real Pi. Test-Pi is solely for the purpose of testing transactions on the Pi Testnet and contains NO VALUE. The Test-Pi balance in the wallet may be reset because Testnet will be periodically reset as part of the testing. Please remember that currently sales of Pi are unauthorized and violate the terms of service, which may result in the freezing of the account.

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How to Create a Wallet

For general information about the Pi Wallet and Pi Browser, please read this page here.

For a video with Questions and Answers about the Wallet, please go here.

Instructions

1. Before you can access your Pi Wallet, please download the new “Pi Browser” app from the iOS App Store or Android Play Store. Please make sure that you download the “Pi Browser” developed by Pi Community Company. To ensure you download the correct app, you can also complete this step later by following the steps below. 

2. Open the Pi Network mining app (the original app that you use for mining Pi).

3. Go to the side menu ☰ in the upper left hand corner, and select “Pi Browser”.

4. Read the instruction there and tap the button “SIGN IN TO PI BROWSER”.

   1. This will open either the Pi Browser and automatically sign you in if you’ve downloaded the Pi Browser,or to the app store where you can install Pi Browser  then open it.

   2. For some Android users, it will open a link in the phone’s default browser instead of the Pi Browser, so you may need to open the Pi Browser app itself.

5. To sign in to Pi related apps on Pi Browser, the simplest way is through the mining app as instructed in the last step. However, independently you can also directly sign into the Pi Browser by entering mine.pi in the URL field of the Pi Browser, and then tap on "Use other sign-in methods" and enter your Pi Network credentials.  

6. After signing into the Pi Browser, you will see a welcome page with the “wallet.pi” icon.

7. Click on the “wallet.pi” icon.

8. Click on “GENERATE WALLET”.

9. Make sure your passphrase is stored safely, either directly on your phone only accessible to you through your fingerprint (Android) or Touch ID/Face ID (iOS) or by copying and pasting it to a secret safe place. A passphrase is a “password” made of a long string of words. This is like a private key for a crypto wallet. If you lose your key, you will lose access to the wallet and cannot recover the wallet due to the non-custodial nature of the Pi Wallet. So, please do not lose your passphrase, and do not leave it open to free access by others.

10. If you did not set up the biometric authentication during the wallet creation process, you may need to “UNLOCK WITH PASSPHRASE” in order to set up your biometric login (e.g. fingerprint or facial recognition). 

How to Use the Pi Wallet

After you have logged into your Pi Wallet, you will see the Balance page. A new wallet will contain 100 Test-Pi. Remember Test-Pi is not the real Pi, does not have value and is only for testing purposes. 

1. To send Test-Pi, tap on the orange “SEND” button. On the Send Test-Pi page,

   1. In “Recipient Address” enter the wallet address of the recipient that you would like to send Test-Pi. (In the future, a new optional feature will enable you to send test-Pi with username only.)

   2. In “Amount”, enter the amount of Test-Pi you want to send.

   3. In “Fee”, the minimum fee right now for Pi Testnet is 0.01 Test-Pi, which is the default. You may increase the fee if you would like to have your transaction prioritized during times of high traffic.

   4. Note: The balance of the wallet cannot go below 20 Test-Pi. So, an attempt to transfer an amount that would result in a balance below 20 Test-Pi will not be successful. Instructions on how to request for more Test-Pi can be found under the “Receive” button. 

2. When you tap on the History link,

   1. You will have a list of all the historical incoming and outgoing transactions from your wallet. The same transaction history was recorded on Pi Testnet blockchain.  

3. When you tap on the Settings link,

   1. You can associate a biometric identification login solution to your wallet, if you have not yet done so. e.g. If your phone has the capability, you can use your Fingerprint (Android) or Touch ID/Face ID (iOS) to access your Passphrase and log into your wallet.

   2. You can find your Passphrase by tapping the “SHOW” button. Please remember to keep your Passphrase private. Do not share the Passphrase.

4. To find your wallet address, click on the "Receive" button. 

   1. Currently, you can now share your wallet address by tapping “COPY” and then  sharing it with whoever wants to send you Test-Pi, e.g. pasting it to a text or email message.

   2. In the future, there will be a feature to share the wallet address through your choice of communication solution (social media, email…) with the future "SHARE" button. Remember that the blockchain is publicly visible, so you may share your wallet address publicly, while your wallet will still be secure.

5. If you have sent out all your Test-Pi and want to continue testing transactions, you may request for another 100 Test-Pi by tapping the link at the bottom of either the Send or Receive page. This option is available every 48 hours and if you have less than 50 Test-Pi.

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Mainnet Preparation

To prepare the community for the Mainnet migration, we are releasing some mobile-app features related to Mainnet now, which gives time for the community to understand, ask questions and preselect settings before the Mainnet launch. One feature is displaying the breakdown of a Pioneer’s balance (e.g. balance mined by themselves), transferable balance to Mainnet and balance attributable to their team members. In addition, we’re also releasing another important feature that allows Pioneers to voluntarily lock up a portion of their transferable balances to mine at a higher rate later on. The lockup feature lets Pioneers preselect their voluntary lockup setting configurations that will apply to their Mainnet transfer after Mainnet launches and the Pioneer passes KYC.

To access these features, follow the directions below.

1. From the Pi home screen, tap on the ≡ icon in the upper left corner to open up the Pi sidebar menu.

2. Tap on “Mainnet.”

3. Learn about the various balances shown on the screen.

4. Tap on “Configure lockup rate” to preselect your setting.

From here, follow the in-app instructions.

How do lockups on Mainnet work?

At Mainnet, the lockup reward is meant to support a healthy and smooth ecosystem and incentivize long-term engagement with the network, while the network is bootstrapping the economy and creating demands. It is an important decentralized macroeconomic mechanism to moderate circulating supply in the market, especially in the early years of the open market when utilities are being created. One important goal of the Pi Network is to create a utility-based ecosystem of apps. Transactions for real goods and services in the ecosystem, rather than just speculative trading, are intended to determine the utility of Pi. As we launch the Enclosed Network phase of the Mainnet, which will be introduced soon, one of the main areas of focus will be to support and grow the Pi app developer community and nurture more Pi apps to grow. In the meantime, Pioneers can choose to lock up their Pi to help create a stable market environment for the ecosystem to mature and for more Pi apps to emerge and provide compelling use cases for spending Pi – to ultimately create organic demands through utilities.

The lockup feature will be active when we launch the early version of the Mainnet later this month, but you can take time to learn about and even preselect lockup configurations now before you are KYC’ed or ready to migrate to the Mainnet. You can decide to change your lockup configuration anytime you want as an overall account-wide setting in the Pi app.

As you and your earning team/security circle pass KYC and new mining occurs, more of your Mobile Balance will become transferable. At each transfer to Mainnet, these preselected settings of lockup duration and percentage will automatically apply to the amount of balance transferred, resulting in two types of balances on the Mainnet: lockup balance and free balance, both of which will be recorded on the Mainnet blockchain and reside in the Pioneer’s non-custodial Pi wallet. Lockups cannot be reversed once confirmed and must remain locked up for the entirety of the chosen duration due to the nature of blockchain. 

As the lockup amount is accounted for by the percentage of your transferred balance, you will have to lock up the same percentage of the new transferred balance to maintain the same lockup mining boost. This is done easily by keeping your lockup configuration setting consistent for every recurring transfer to Mainnet. On the other hand, if you lock up a lower percentage of Pi in your later transfers as your initial Mainnet transfer, your lockup mining boost will decrease proportionally. If you make any changes to your account-wide lockup setting, the change will take effect on the next transfer of your balance to the Mainnet.

Please refer to the lockup feature interface in the app for a more detailed explanation on how the lockup works and is calculated. When we launch the early version of the Mainnet later this month, we will also release updated sections of the whitepaper. There, you will be able to see the precise and complete Mainnet formulae and mechanisms.

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Roadmap

Pi Network is unique in our technological and ecosystem design as well as the significance of our community input in development. This uniqueness is best served by a thoughtful and iterative approach that allows for community feedback, testing of products, features, and user experience, and phases defined by milestones. There are three main phases to our development: (1) Beta, (2) Testnet, and (3) Mainnet. 

Phase 1: Beta

In December 2018, we publicly launched our mobile app on the iOS App store as an alpha prototype that onboarded the initial Pioneers. On Pi Day, March 14, 2019, the original Pi whitepaper was published, marking the official launch of the Pi Network. At this stage, our app allowed Pioneers to mine Pi by contributing to the growth and security of the future Pi blockchain. As the eventual goal was to launch the Mainnet and build an ecosystem around the Pi platform, the Pi app running on the centralized Pi server enabled mobile phone users (Pioneers) to contribute their security circles that, in aggregate, built the trust graph required by the consensus algorithm of the Pi Blockchain, and in return, the Pioneers received mining rewards. Furthermore, the centralized phase allowed the network to grow, the community to form, and the Pi token to be accessible and widely distributed. This phase also allowed for the iteration of many technical features and Pioneer experience by leveraging community input throughout the development process.

The following major accomplishments were made during the Beta phase: 

• The Pi Network mobile app was listed and accessible through the iOS App Store and Google Playstore.

• Pi Network grew from 0 to over 3.5 million engaged Pioneers. 

• The Pi Network community actively engaged with the project through the app home screen interactions and chat app.

• Pi Network reached 233 countries and regions around the world.

Phase 2: Testnet

This phase started on March 14, 2020, marking another critical preparation to the transition to a decentralized blockchain—a live Testnet with distributed Nodes from all over the world. Pi Network’s Node software enabled individual computers to support running the Pi Testnet using Test-Pi coin. Test-Pi was available only for the purpose of testing and has no relation to Pioneers’ account balances on the Pi app. The Pi Testnet has reached over 10,000 fully functional community Nodes and over 100,000 daily active Nodes on the waiting list, and as explained in a later section, will continue to exist for testing purposes in the Mainnet phase.  

Pi Testnet allows for the testing of connectivity, performance, security, and scalability of the blockchain, and allows Pi apps developers to develop the Pi apps before they can deploy their app on the Mainnet. During the Testnet phase, 3 major strategies were adopted: (1) decentralization through Testnet Nodes, (2) growth through the main Pi app for mobile mining, and (3) utility creation through the Pi apps platform on the Pi Browser. The Testnet ran in parallel with the Pi mobile mining app from Phase 1 and enabled decentralized community Nodes to get online and ready for the Mainnet. Specifically, the Testnet Nodes helped with the assessment of the blockchain’s performance, security, and scalability. It also helped Pi App developers test their apps against the Pi Blockchain. At the same time, the Pi mobile mining app continued to onboard millions of Pioneers, building the community and contributing to the security of the blockchain. The Pi Browser, along with the Pi SDK, enabled the community to create utilities and develop the Pi ecosystem. 

The following major accomplishments were made during the Testnet phase: 

• Many versions of the Node software were released.

• The Pi Platform was released along with key ingredients of our ecosystem infrastructure: Wallet, Browser, Brainstorm and developer tools.

• Pilot version of the KYC app was introduced on the Pi Browser.

• The project ran its first ever worldwide online Hackathon with thousands of participants from within the Pioneer Community. 

• Pi Network grew to over 29 million engaged Pioneers, and from 0 to over 10,000 fully functional community Nodes and over 100,000 daily active Nodes on the waiting list. 

• Pi Network reached almost all countries and regions in the world. 

Phase 3: Mainnet

In December 2021, the Mainnet of the Pi blockchain will go live. The migration of Pioneer balances from their phone account to the Mainnet starts during this period. KYC authentication of a Pioneer precedes their balance migration to the Mainnet. In order to allow for sufficient time for millions of Pioneers to successfully complete their KYC verification, create utilities in the Pi ecosystem, and continue to iterate on our technology and ecosystem design, the Mainnet will have two periods: 

1. at first, firewalled Mainnet (i.e., the Enclosed Network), 

2. and then, open Mainnet (i.e., the Open Network). 

The Enclosed Network Period

This period will begin in December 2021. The Enclosed Network period means that the Mainnet is live but with a firewall that prevents any unwanted external connectivity. Pioneers will be able to take time to KYC and migrate their Pi to the live Mainnet blockchain. Any balance migrated to the Mainnet can be used, by the choice of the Pioneer, to purchase goods and services in Pi apps, transfer to other Pioneers, or get locked up for a duration of time for a higher mining rate. KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to use their Pi on the Mainnet freely in an enclosed environment within Pi Network. However, this period will not allow connectivity between the Pi blockchain and other blockchains. 

Advantages of the Two-Period Approach to Mainnet

There are multiple advantages to having an intermediate enclosed period to ramp up to the fully open Mainnet. This approach allows time for: 

• millions of Pioneers worldwide to pass KYC, 

• building and deploying more Pi Apps and allowing more utilities to be created and used, 

• transitioning Pi Apps deployed on the Testnet to the Mainnet, and

• iterating on any modifications and adjustments to the Mainnet and the ecosystem before the Open Network. 

The Enclosed Network period allows time for millions of Pioneers to KYC and migrate their Pi to the Mainnet. Only a small fraction of Pioneers have been able to complete their KYC around the launch of the Mainnet. Over the coming months, we will continue to roll out the KYC solution to more Pioneers and help them complete their KYC. If we moved directly from Testnet to Open Network, this would mean that the Pioneers who were able to KYC before others would have Pi available for use outside of the Pi platform while the Pioneers still waiting to complete their KYC would not yet have this privilege. The speed at which Pioneers all over the world are able to complete their KYC will depend on the speed at which each local community provides the KYC validator crowd work force as well as the speed at which individual Pioneers participate in the KYC.

Having the Enclosed Network period gives time for millions of Pioneers to complete their KYC and transfer their Pi to the Mainnet. This way, all the Pioneers who are willing and able to complete their KYC in a reasonable period of time get to use their Pi outside of the Pi platform at once. Given that external connectivity between the Pi Blockchain and other blockchains or systems is not allowed during the Enclosed Network period, this further helps Pioneers focus on transitioning into Mainnet without any influences external to the Pi Blockchain. 

This period will also help the community focus on creating utilities and bootstrapping the ecosystem without any external distractions. Consistent with the vision of the Pi network to enable a utility-based ecosystem, this allows apps to deploy on Mainnet and create utilities for Pioneers. Pi apps will be able to switch from Testnet to Mainnet—to production mode for real Pi transactions. At this time, KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to spend their Pi on Pi apps, boosting utilities creation and bootstrapping the Pi ecosystem before the Open Network. This gradual and deliberate ramp to Open Network will help the apps, as well as the Pi Network, to uncover and resolve any glitches in the market and the technology. Thus, the Enclosed Network period is in line with Pi’s vision of a utility-based ecosystem and its iterative philosophy.  

Moreover, the Enclosed Network will allow the Mainnet to run with production data and real Pi, which differs from Testnet. Data gathered during the Enclosed Network will help calibrate and tweak any configurations and formulae, if necessary, to ensure a stable and successful Open Network. 

KYC Verification and Mainnet Balance Transfer

“Know Your Customer/Client” (KYC) is a process that verifies identification to distinguish genuine accounts from fake ones. The vision of Pi Network is to build an inclusive and the most widely distributed token and ecosystem for all Pioneers. The mining mechanism of Pi Network is social network-based, and the mining rate has halved 5 times so far as the social network size grew to over 1K, 10K, 100K, 1M, and 10M engaged members. Therefore, Pi has a strict policy of one account per person. This requires a high degree of accuracy to establish that members in the network are genuine human beings, preventing individuals from being able to unfairly hoard Pi by creating fake accounts. Pioneers’ KYC results will depend on not only identity verification, but also their name matching with the Pi account and screening against government sanction list. KYC, thus, helps ensure the true humanness of the network and compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and anti-terrorism regulations. 

As communicated at the founding of the network, to ensure true humanness, fake Pi accounts and scripted mining are strictly prohibited. These accounts will be disabled, and will not be able to migrate to Mainnet. Over the past three years, multiple technical mechanisms have been implemented to identify bots and fake accounts. For the accounts identified as highly likely to be fake by Pi’s algorithm, the weight is on these accounts to prove otherwise. These identified fake accounts will either be disabled or go through a much more rigorous review and appeal process. The allocation of KYC slots will be prioritized for accounts with a high likelihood of being true human holders. 

Only the accounts with verified identities will be allowed to transition to Mainnet, and only the Pi balances attributable to identity-verified accounts will be allowed to transfer to the Mainnet balance. When a Pioneer and their referral team and security circle members pass the KYC determines if and when, and to what extent, a Pioneer can transfer their balances. Below is a hypothetical example to illustrate how the KYC verification of Pioneers affects their balances in migration to the Mainnet. 

For simplicity, we define different concepts of Pi balances as follows:

• Mobile Balance: The Pi balance currently shown in a Pioneer’s account in the Pi mobile app

• Transferable Balance: The balance that has been allowed to be transferred to the Mainnet because the Pioneer and their specific associated individuals in the referral teams and security circles have passed KYC

• Mainnet balance: The balance that has been migrated and transferred by the Pioneer to the Mainnet

Suppose individual A is the owner of a Pi account who wants to transfer their Mobile Balance. Pioneer A will only be allowed to transfer any of the Mobile Balance to the Mainnet when their identity is verified, i.e., when they pass the KYC. Let’s say this individual has Individuals B, C, D, and E on their referral team and Individuals D, E, F, and G in their security circle. So far, only individuals A, B, D, and F have completed their KYC verification. 

In this example setup: 

• A is a mining Pioneer who has passed KYC.

• B, C, D, E are in the Referral Team of A.

• D, E, F, G are in the Security Circle of A.

• A, B, D, and F have passed KYC.

Here, A’s Transferable Balance is the sum of the following three components:

• Pioneer Rewards: Pi mined based on A’s Pioneer status across all mining sessions

• Contributor Rewards: D and F’s contribution to A's mining rate as Contributors in all mining sessions

• Ambassador Rewards: Mining bonuses from all mining sessions when B and D as referral team members mined during the same session as A mined

As more of Pioneer A’s referral team and security circle members (i.e., C, E, and G) pass KYC, more portions of A’s Mobile Balance will become Transferable Balance—ready for A to migrate to the Mainnet, and ultimately become A’s Mainnet Balance. 

During the Enclosed Mainnet period, any Mobile Balance that has not become Transferable Balance will remain in the Mobile mining app until the associated Pioneers in the referral team and security circles pass KYC and the corresponding amount becomes transferable to Mainnet. In the case of the above example of Pioneer A, the balance contribution by C, E, and G will remain as Mobile Balance for A in the mining app waiting for them to pass KYC in order for such balance to become transferable. If such associated accounts never pass KYC, the balance attributed to these non-KYC’ed accounts will expire at a certain date which will have allowed enough time for the whole network to KYC. The unclaimed balances due to lack of KYC will be discarded by not being transferred to the Mainnet at all. 

Restrictions in the Enclosed Network

While transactions between Pi apps and Pioneers and Pioneer-to-Pioneer transactions are allowed within Pi Network, the Enclosed Network will have in place the restrictions as listed below. These restrictions at this stage help enforce the enclosed nature of the network: 

• There will be no connectivity between Pi and other blockchains or crypto exchanges.

• Mainnet can only be accessed through the Pi Wallet and Pi apps on the Pi Browser.

• The Mainnet blockchain will be accessible to any computer on the internet but only through a firewall to enforce the above rules.

• There will only be Core Team Nodes on the Mainnet to ensure that the firewall is in place at all times.

The Enclosed Network will support the economic activities and growth of the Pi ecosystem. Thus, Pioneer-to-Pioneer transactions are possible through the Pi Wallet as KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to use the Pi Wallet to transact in Pi. Pioneers can also spend Pi in Pi apps on the Pi Browser, which can access the Mainnet through the Pi Apps SDK and the Pi Blockchain API. During the Enclosed Network period, an app on the Pi Browser can only use the Pi blockchain APIs whitelisted by the firewall to interact with the Mainnet.

The following uses of Pioneer-to-Pioneer, Pioneer-to-App, and App-to-Pioneer transactions will be allowed: 

• Exchange of Pi for goods and services through Pi Apps

• Transfer of Pi between Pioneers for goods and services

The following uses will be prohibited: 

• Exchange of Pi for fiat currency

• Exchange of Pi for other cryptocurrencies

• Transfer for Pi for a future promise of fiat or other cryptocurrencies

We will enforce the above restrictions by adding a firewall to the Mainnet and by exclusively running the Mainnet Nodes for this interim period. Community Nodes will continue to run on the Testnet in the Enclosed Network period. We will continue to implement interface and other changes to the Nodes in preparation for the Open Network period where the Community Nodes will be able to run on the Mainnet. The restrictions of the Network to keep it enclosed will be relaxed as it reaches the next period—Open Network.

The Open Network Period

Depending on the maturity of the Enclosed Network economy and the progress of the KYC, this period may begin on Pi Day (March 14, 2022), Pi2 Day (June 28, 2022), or later. The Open Network period means that the firewall in the Enclosed Network period will be removed, allowing any external connectivity, e.g., to other networks, wallets, and anyone who wants to connect to Pi Mainnet. API calls will not be firewalled, and Pioneers will be able to run their own Pi Nodes and API services. Pioneers will have connectivity with other blockchains. Community Nodes can also run the Mainnet. 

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Beware of Scams

As Pi Network grows, there has been a recent increase of scams claiming to involve Pi. Remember that Pi is mined for free but currently not for sale. Pi Network is not affiliated with anyone or any organization claiming to sell Pi, Pi futures or any derivatives of Pi. All such sales are unauthorized and may lead to your loss of money or personal data. Pi is currently not on any trading or futures exchanges or traded for other currencies/cryptocurrencies.

Avoid unauthorized sales of Pi, Pi futures or derivatives

Avoid all current unauthorized sales of Pi, Pi futures or derivatives, because either these scams may not have the Pi they claim they do to give you back the promised Pi after you pay them money, or these futures and derivatives will be built on empty assets where nothing is backing their value, thus probably ending up in “pump and dump” situations. Remember it takes time to create and build real value, and the promise of quick money is usually a scam. Because of our policy that all Pi earned through fake accounts or scripting will be burned and the current terms of in-app transfers, many of these scammers who think they own certain amounts of Pi will lose their Pi before the Mainnet due to the behavior prohibited by our policies and terms. 

So there is no other way to increase your mining rate or to get more Pi right now but to mine in-app. Beware of scammers who make false claims that you can get more than what can be earned inside the Pi App. You can mine Pi for free by pushing the mining button in the app everyday, and you get rewarded for securing the network by having up to 5 members in your Security Circle, and growing the network by building up your earning team through invites. 

Do not share personal info

Please do NOT give out your personal information (e.g. phone number, email address, passwords, Pi username and balances) to any organizations, websites, social media, or messaging apps for any airdrops or potential trading opportunities. Pi Network is not conducting any airdrops. As mentioned above, any futures or derivatives of Pi may not be backed by anything, hence you are running the risk of privacy and identity theft in this case. 

Any unofficial communities pretending to run paid “Pi KYC” are scams, and you may lose money and potentially have your identity stolen. All Pi KYC processes will only be initiated from this App. You’ll be notified if you’re selected for KYC which is currently free. 

Do not share personal information (e.g. phone number, email address, passwords) inside the Pi App chat rooms or any communication channels where strangers can view.  Specifically, you should not be exchanging phone numbers or adding strangers to your Security Circle. You should only add people that you trust to your Security Circle. Remember that you are receiving the security circle reward for making the network more secure. If you are adding untrustworthy people to your Security Circle, this action of yours not only did not contribute to the security of the network, but also may have a negative effect on your ability to make transfers and Pi account recovery in the future.

Use official Pi Network resources

The best place to get information about Pi is from inside the app and on our official website http://www.minepi.com . Pi Chat Moderators manage this Community Wiki page and aims to provide reliable information, but it may contain inaccuracies.

Beware of sites that imitate our website or social media pages. The Pi App has links in the side menu to our official social media sites. Take caution with unofficial Pi-related social pages or groups who offer information or services. There are some resources that may be reliable, but there are others who spread false rumors. So, always refer back to the Pi app or website for official news and information. 

Always report suspicious activity

If you come across a scam or questionable activity, please send supporting evidence of the scam as Email Request through our Support Portal, and use the Scam Report Form. If there are Pioneers trying to buy, sell, or trade Pi in the Pi App chat rooms, this is a violation of our terms of service. If you see this activity, please take a screenshot of the violator’s message and send an Email Request through our Support Portal, and use the Scam Report Form.

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Token Model and Mining

Introduction

Pi Mainnet is now live, initiating the Enclosed Network period of Mainnet phase where the Mainnet blockchain is firewalled to prohibit external connectivity but allows peer-to-peer and peer-to-app transfers within the enclosed network. Mainnet can be viewed in the Pi Blockexplorer. Pi wallet can now show both Testnet and Mainnet balances, although everyone’s balance on Mainnet is 0 right now. As more Pioneers pass KYC, they will be able to transfer their balance to the Mainnet. The KYC solution is coming soon to start verifying Pioneers’ identity and onboarding identity validators.    

Note that Pi Network is NOT running an ICO or any type of crowdfunding sales of Pi. Thus, any party impersonating Pi Network or its founders to conduct a sale or listing is illegal and fake. Any sales of Pi towards Pioneers are unauthorized and have no affiliation with the Pi Core Team. Pioneers should beware of any scams and not participate. Pi can be mined freely by contributing to the ecosystem through our mobile app. Further, any mined Pi can only be claimed from inside the official Pi App through the Mainnet dashboard and then transferred into your Pi wallet. Any website asking Pioneers to claim Pi by other means is fake.

Below is the new draft of the Pi supply and mining sections of our whitepaper. Mining will continue in the Mainnet phase but with a mining rate dynamically adjusted within limited supply. For more details, read the new whitepaper sections that review how supply and mining worked before Mainnet and describe how and why they will change at Mainnet. We will also keep the previously released Roadmap chapter at the bottom for reference. Your feedback is welcome before we update the official whitepaper on our website when Open Network begins.

The new mining mechanism will not yet go into effect until more people pass KYC and migrate to the Mainnet. Before that, all Pioneers can continue mining on the pre-Mainnet mechanism just like before. In the following days, we will release a preview of the new mining interface for you to view the new simulated Mainnet mining mechanism in a hypothetical setting and to help you calibrate your lockup setting. Once the simulations and calibrations are done and enough Pioneers have migrated into Mainnet, the new Mainnet mining mechanism will take effect and be announced on the home screen.

Token Model and Mining

A well thought-out, sound token design is critical to the success of a cryptocurrency network. It has the potential to create incentives to bootstrap network formation and growth, build a utilities-driven ecosystem, and thereby support the cryptocurrency underpinning such a system. What a network incentivizes says a lot about what a network needs—for example, network growth or fundamentals-driven utility creation, a mere store of value or a medium of exchange for the cryptonative ecosystem. This chapter covers the supply of Pi and how Pioneers can mine Pi in different phases of the network, and the underlying design rationale for different mining mechanisms including to build and grow the network and to incentivize utilities and demand. Note that Pi is a layer one cryptocurrency running on its own blockchain, which “token” here refers to. 

Pi Supply

Pi Network’s vision is to build the world’s most inclusive peer-to-peer economy and online experience, fueled by Pi, the world’s most widely used cryptocurrency. To deliver on this vision, it is important to grow the network and make Pi widely accessible while maintaining the security of the blockchain and the scarcity of Pi. While these goals have always guided the token supply model and mining design, the key distinction is: the pre-Mainnet phases focused on driving network growth and widely distributing Pi and the Mainnet phase will focus on rewarding more diverse forms of Pioneer contributions while cementing the supply of Pi. 

Pre-Mainnet Supply

In the early stages, the focus of Pi Network was on growing and securing the network. Bootstrapping to build a critical mass of participants is paramount to any network and ecosystem. Driven by the vision to make Pi the world’s most widely used cryptocurrency, distributing Pi and making it accessible globally further added to the focus on growth. Pi’s consensus algorithm relies on a global trust graph, which is aggregated from the Security Circles of individual Pioneers. It was, therefore, critical to incentivize Pioneers to form individual Security Circles. This meant a supply of tokens available as mining rewards that was not explicitly capped before Mainnet. 

At the same time, maintaining a certain scarcity of Pi was important. As explained under the Mining section, the network adopted a mining mechanism where the network mining rate halves every time the network size increases by 10 times, resulting in a series of halving events when it reaches various milestones of engaged Pioneers. The next halving event based on this model would be when the network reaches 100 million engaged Pioneers. Currently, we are over 30 million engaged Pioneers. The network also retained an option to stop all mining altogether in the event that the network reached a certain size, which was, however, yet to be determined. The option to cap the supply of Pi was not exercised before Mainnet, therefore leaving the total supply undefined.

The pre-Mainnet supply model with a mining mechanism tailored to accessibility, growth and security has bootstrapped a community of over 30 million engaged Pioneers with millions of intertwined Security Circles. A simple, accessible means to mine Pi on a mobile phone helped distribute the tokens widely throughout the world, including among populations that have been left out of the crypto revolution because of a lack of capital, knowledge or technology. In doing so, the network avoided the extreme wealth concentration evident in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, preparing itself to become a true peer-to-peer decentralized ecosystem with a large enough volume of participants and transactions for utility creation.

Mainnet Supply

Supply fuels growth and incentivizes necessary contributions to the network to achieve an organically viable ecosystem. To that end, mining rewards will continue after Mainnet but will take diverse forms to incentivize different types of contributions, which will be explained in the Mining section below. In regard to supply, the undetermined supply due to the pre-Mainnet mining mechanism that optimizes for accessibility and growth of the network presents a few problems for the Mainnet phase, including unpredictability in planning, over-rewarding and under-rewarding different types of necessary contributions in the new phase, and challenges to scarcity. To address these issues, the network will shift from its pre-Mainnet supply model that is completely dependent on network behavior to the Mainnet supply model where there is a clear maximum supply. 

The issue of unpredictability for planning in the pre-Mainnet supply model surfaced in Pi Network’s first COiNVENTION in September-October 2020 where the community panel and community submissions discussed whether mining should be halved or stopped at the network size of 10 million at the time. The diverse voices of community members presented the following  dilemma for the network. If mining continued based on the ongoing (pre-Mainnet) mining mechanism, then it raised concerns for the supply due to uncertainty, and thus, the scarcity of Pi. However, if mining stopped, it would hurt the growth of the network and prevent new Pioneers joining the network as miners, thereby undermining the accessibility of  Pi. Even though the network moved on from that decision and halved the mining rate at its 10 Million size, this dilemma still remains and needs to be resolved. 

How the community can achieve continued growth and accessibility while addressing concerns about supply is one of the main factors considered in the design of the Mainnet token model. In addition, the undefined and unpredictable total supply makes it hard to have overall network token planning because the community as a collective and the ecosystem itself have needs to use some Pi for purposes that benefit the community and ecosystem as a whole, other than only mining rewards for individuals, as evidenced by almost every other blockchain network. Clear allocations for such collective community purposes need to be defined. Hence, given the current network size of over 30 million Pioneers and the expected volume of transactions and activities in the future, the Mainnet supply model has a clear maximum total supply of 100 billion Pi allowing incentivizations of continued growth and new contributions while removing the concerns about the unpredictability of the supply. 

The supply distribution will honor the original distribution principle in the March 14, 2019 white paper—the Pi community has 80% and the Pi Core Team has 20% of the total circulating supply of Pi, regardless of how much circulating supply there is in the Pi Network at any given point in time. Thus, given a total max supply of 100 billion Pi, the community will eventually receive 80 billion Pi and the Core Team will eventually receive 20 billion Pi. The following pie chart depicts the overall distribution. The Core Team’s allocation gets unlocked at the same pace as the community progressively mines more and more Pi and may be subject to additional lockup through a self-imposed mandate. This means that if the community has a portion of its allocation in circulation (for example, 25%), only the proportional amount in Core Team’s allocation (in this example, 25%) can get unlocked at most.

This distribution above shows that Pi Network does not have any allocation for ICO and is NOT running any type of crowdfunding sales of Pi. Thus, any impersonation of Pi Network or its founders to conduct a sale or listing is illegal, unauthorized and fake. These impersonators have no affiliation with Pi Core Team. Pioneers should beware of any scams and not participate. Pi can be mined freely by contributing to the ecosystem. Further, all mined Pi can only be claimed from inside the Pi App through the Mainnet dashboard and then transferred into your Pi wallet. Any website asking Pioneers to claim Pi in other means is fake. 

The 80% of the community supply is further divided into: 65% allocated for all past and future Pioneer mining rewards, at address GBQQRIQKS7XLMWTTRM2EPMTRLPUGQJDLEKCGNDIFGTBZG4GL5CHHJI25 on the Mainnet, 10% reserved for supporting community organization and ecosystem building that will eventually be managed by a Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization in the future, at address GDPDSLFVGEPX6FJKGZXSTJCPTSKKAI4KBHBAQCCKQDXISW3S5SJ6MGMS, and 5% reserved for the liquidity pool to provide liquidity for Pioneers and developers in the Pi ecosystem at address GB7HLN74IIY6PENSHHBBJJXWV6IZQDELTBZNXXORDGTL75O4KC5CUXEV. The following table depicts the community supply distribution: 

65 Billion Pi will be allocated for all mining rewards—both past and future mining. For past mining rewards, the rough sum of all Pi mined by all Pioneers so far (before Mainnet) is about 30 Billion Pi. However, after discarding Pi mined by fake accounts and depending on the speed and participation of KYC, the pre-Mainnet mined Pi at the beginning of the Open Network can be estimated to range from 10 to 20 Billion. The remaining amount in the 65 billion Pi supply for mining rewards will be distributed to Pioneers through the new Mainnet mining mechanism with conceptual yearly supply limits. 

Such yearly supply limits will be determined based on a declining formula. The yearly limit may be computed on a more granular basis such as by the day or by an even smaller time epoch dynamically, depending on factors such as the lockup ratio and the remaining supply of the network at the time. Such calculation of supply limits based on granular time epochs helps achieve a better and more smooth allocation curve through time. For the sake of simplicity here, let’s suppose that the time epoch is yearly. The declining formula would mean that the yearly supply limit for the first year of new Mainnet mining will be higher than for the second year, the second year’s higher than the third year’s, and so on. The yearly declining formula and these numbers will need to be finalized closer to the launch of the Open Network period of Mainnet once we will have seen how many Pioneers have KYC’ed and how much of their mined Pi they have transferred into Mainnet.

At Mainnet, Pioneers will be rewarded for their continued contributions to the growth and security of the network. As explained in the Mining section, Pioneer rewards will be further diversified because the network needs more diverse and in-depth contributions related to app usage, node operation, and Pi lockup. Pre-mainnet Pioneers will continue to contribute to Pi and mine from the Mainnet mining rewards, along with any new members joining the network, to ensure growth and longevity of the network.   

10 Billion Pi will be reserved for community organization and ecosystem building that will be, in the future, managed by a non-profit foundation. Most decentralized networks or cryptocurrencies, even though they are decentralized, still need an organization to organize the community and set the future direction of the ecosystem, e.g., Ethereum and Stellar. The future Pi foundation will (1) organize and sponsor community events, such as developer conventions, global online events and local community meetings, (2) organize volunteers and committee members, and pay full-time employees who are dedicated to building the community and ecosystem, (3) gather opinions and feedback from the community, (4) organize future community votings, (5) build branding and protect the reputation of the network, (6) represent the network to interact with other business entities including governments, traditional banks, and traditional enterprises, or (7) fulfill any number of responsibilities for the betterness of the Pi community and ecosystem. Further, in order to build a utilities-based Pi ecosystem, various community developer programs will be designed, created and carried out by the foundation to support community developers in the forms of grants, incubations, partnerships, etc. 

5 billion Pi will be reserved for liquidity pools to provide liquidity for any ecosystem participants, including Pioneers and Pi apps developers. Liquidity is key for an ecosystem to be viable, active, and healthy. If businesses or individuals want to participate in ecosystem activities (e.g., by selling and buying goods and services in Pi), they must have timely access to Pi. Without liquidity, the ecosystem will not have a healthy flow of Pi, hence harming the creation of utilities. 

As discussed in the Roadmap chapter, one benefit of the Enclosed Network period of the Mainnet is to allow calibrations on the token model, if any, based on the early Mainnet results. Therefore, the token model is subject to tweaking before the Open Network period starts. Also, in the future, for the health of the network and ecosystem, the network may face questions such as whether there needs to be any inflation after the completion of the distribution of the 100 Billion Pi. The inflation may be necessary to further incentivize contributions through more mining rewards, make up for any loss of Pi from circulation due to accidents or death, provide for more liquidity, mitigate hoarding that inhibits usage and utility creation, etc. At that time, the foundation and its committees specialized in these matters will organize and guide the community to reach a conclusion on the matter in a decentralized way.  

Mining Mechanism

Pi Network’s mining mechanism has been allowing Pioneers to contribute to the growth, distribution and security of the network and be rewarded in Pi meritocratically. The pre-Mainnet mining mechanism has helped the network achieve an impressive growth of over 30 million engaged members, a widely distributed currency and Testnet, and a trust graph of Security Circle aggregates that will feed the consensus algorithm of the Pi blockchain. 

Looking ahead into the Mainnet phase, Pi Network needs further contributions, as well as more diverse types of contributions from all its members, to become a true economy while continuing its growth and inclusion. In the Mainnet phase, we want to further achieve decentralization, utilities, stability and longevity, in addition to growth, inclusion, and security. These goals can only be achieved if all Pioneers in the network work together. Hence, the new Pi mining mechanism is designed to achieve these goals by incentivizing all Pioneers to contribute diversely to the network based on the same meritocratic principle. Below, we first describe the pre-Mainnet mining formula, followed by the changes in the Mainnet formula.

Pre-Mainnet Formula

The pre-Mainnet mining formula demonstrates a meritocratic determination of a Pioneer’s hourly mining rate. Actively mining Pioneers received at least a minimum rate and were further rewarded for their contributions to security and growth of the network. The following formula determined the rate at which Pioneers mined Pi per hour: 

M = I(B,S) + E(I), where

M is the total Pioneer mining rate, 

I is the Individual Pioneer base mining rate, 

B is the systemwide base mining rate, 

S is the Security Circle reward, which is a component of the individual Pioneer base mining rate from valid Security Circle connections, and 

E is the Referral Team reward from active Referral Team members. 

The systemwide base mining rate B started as 3.1415926 Pi/h and halved every time the network of Engaged Pioneers increased in size by a factor of 10x, starting at 1000 Pioneers. As listed below, there have been five halving events thus far: 

Here,

I(B,S) = B + S(B)

S(B) = 0.2 • min(Sc,5) • B, where

Sc is the count of valid Security Circle connections.

E(I) = Ec • I(B,S) • 0.25, where

Ec is the count of active Referral Team members who mine concurrently.

The mining formula can also be written as a multiple of B: 

M = I(B,S) + E(I)

M = [B + S(B)] + [Ec • I(B,S) • 0.25], or

M = [B + {0.2 • min(Sc,5) • B}] + [Ec • 0.25 • {B + {0.2 • min(Sc,5) • B}}], or

M = B • [1 + {0.2 • min(Sc,5)} + {Ec • 0.25 • {1 + 0.2 • min(Sc,5)}}], or

M = B • [(1 + Ec • 0.25) • {1 + 0.2 • min(Sc,5)}]

Pre-Mainnet Systemwide Base Mining Rate

Every active Pioneer received at least the systemwide base mining rate (B). That is, if Sc = 0 and Ec = 0 in the mining formula above, then M = B. In any case, the total Pioneer mining rate was a multiple of the systemwide base mining rate. The value of B was pre-determined before the Mainnet, and as shown in the table above, it changed only five times. The max supply was undetermined due to the dynamic progress of the pre-Mainnet mining mechanism, e.g. how large the network is and how fast the network reaches the next halving event. It would only be determined when B dropped to 0. However, as explained in the next section, the value of B at Mainnet is calculated in real time, dynamically adjusting based on the total annual Pi supply and the total mining coefficient across all the Pioneers. The supply of Pi is finite at Mainnet.

Security Circle Reward

Pi’s consensus algorithm relies on a global trust graph, which is aggregated from the millions of intertwining Security Circles of individual Pioneers. Thus, a Pioneer was rewarded with additional Pi per hour for each new valid Security Circle connection, up to 5 such connections. The Security Circles are so central to the security of the Pi blockchain that the Security Circle reward raised the total Pioneer mining rate in two ways: 

• by directly adding to the individual Pioneer base mining rate (I), and 

• by boosting the Referral Team reward, if any. 

In fact, a full Security Circle—that is, having at least five valid connections—doubled both the individual Pioneer base mining rate and the Referral Team reward. 

Referral Team Reward

Pioneers can also invite others to join Pi Network and form their Referral Team. The inviter and invitee share an equal split of the Referral Team bonus rewards, that is a 25% boost to their respective individual Pioneer base mining rates, whenever both are mining concurrently. Pioneers mined more Pi per hour with each concurrently mining Referral Team member. This Referral Team reward recognized the Pioneers’ contribution to the growth of the network and the distribution of the Pi token.

Mainnet Mining Formula

The goals of the Mainnet phase are to make further progress in decentralization and utilities, ensure stability and longevity, and retain growth and security. The new formula, as written below, incentivizes more diverse contributions of Pioneers to support these Mainnet goals while retaining the incentives to secure and grow the network. As before, it is meritocratic and expressed as the rate at which Pioneers mine Pi per hour. 

M = I(B,L,S) + E(I) + N(I) + A(I) + X(B), where

• M is the total Pioneer mining rate, 

• I is the individual Pioneer base mining rate, 

• B is the systemwide base mining rate (adjusted based on the available pool of Pi to distribute for a given time period), 

• L is the lockup reward, which is a new component of the individual Pioneer base mining rate,

• S is the the Security Circle reward, which is a component of the individual Pioneer base mining rate from valid Security Circle connections the same way as in the pre-Mainnet mining formula, 

• E is the Referral Team reward from active Referral Team members the same way as in the pre-Mainnet mining formula, 

• N is the Node reward, 

• A is the Pi apps usage reward, and

• X are new types of contributions necessary for the network ecosystem in the future, which will be determined later, but will also be designed as a multiple of B. 

In short, S and E remain the same as in the pre-Mainnet mining formula, while new rewards such as L, N and A  have been added to the current formula. L is added as part of I; N and A are added as additional rewards calculated based on I. In other words, the network still rewards growth through E and security through S, while incentivizing Pioneers’ contributions to running nodes for decentralization through N, using apps for utilities creation through A, and locking up for stability especially during the initial years through L. Further, new types of rewards to Pioneers through X in the future may be added for building a fully functioning ecosystem, such as rewards for Pioneer developers creating successful Pi apps. B continues to exist over a long period of time while having a yearly cap to ensure longevity of network growth while maintaining scarcity. In fact, all the rewards can be expressed in B as follows. 

Here, 

I(B,L,S) = B + S(B) + L(B)

S(B) = 0.2 • min(Sc,5) • B, where

Sc is the count of valid Security Circle connections.

E(I) = Ec • 0.25 • I(B,L,S), where

Ec is the count of active Referral Team members.

L(B) = Lt • Lp • log(N) • B, where

Lt is a multiplier corresponding to the duration of a lockup, 

Lp is the proportion of Pioneer’s mined Pi on the Mainnet that is locked up with the maximum being 200%, and 

N is the total number of Pioneer's mining sessions preceding the current mining session.

N(I) = node_factor • tuning_factor • I, where

Node_factor = Percent_uptime_last_1_days • (Uptime_factor + Port_open_factor + CPU_factor), where

Uptime_factor = (Percent_uptime_last_90_days + 1.5*Percent_uptime_last_360_days(360-90) + 2* Percent_uptime_last_2_years + 3*Percent_uptime_last_10_years),

Port_open_factor = 1 + percent_ports_open_last_90_days + 1.5*percent_ports_open_last_360_days + 2* percent_ports_open_last_2_years + 3*percent_ports_open_last_10_years,

CPU_factor = (1 + avg_CPU_count_last_90_days + 1.5*avg_CPU_count_last_360_days + 2* avg_CPU_count_last_2_years + 3*avg_CPU_count_last_10_years)/4. 

Percent_uptime_last_*_days/years is the percentage of the last * time period when the individual Node was live and accessible by the network. 

percent_ports_open_last_*_days/years is the percentage of the last * time period when the ports of the individual Node were open for connectivity to the network.

avg_CPU_count_last_*_days/years is the average CPU that the individual Node provided to the network during the last * time period. 

tuning_factor is a statistical factor that normalizes the node_factor to a number between 0 and 10.  

A (I)* = 

log [

Σ_across_apps {

log(time_spent_per_app_yesterday_in_seconds)

} 

] •

log [ log(

      0.8 • avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_30_days +

      0.6 • avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_90_days +

      0.4 • avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_180_days +

      0.2 • avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_1_year +

      0.1 • avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_2_year

) ] • I

time_spent_per_app_yesterday_in_seconds is, for each Pi app, the total amount of time in seconds that the Pioneer spends using the app on the prior day.

Σ_across_apps sums up the logarithmic value of the Pioneer’s time_spent_per_app_yesterday_in_seconds across all the Pi apps. 

avg_daily_time_spent_across_apps_last_*_days/years is the average daily time in seconds the Pioneer spends across all the Pi apps in the aggregate during the last * time period. 

• Note that when any of the logarithmic functions returns an undefined value or a value below 0 (that is, when, the input to the logarithmic function is below 1), the formula resets the value of the logarithmic function to be 0 in order to avoid negative mining rewards or an error in the function. 

X(B) is to be determined in the future based on the new types of contributions, but will be a multiple of B and kept within the yearly supply limit along with other rewards. 

As shown above, the expressions of S and E remain the same as in the pre-Mainnet mining formula, and will not be explained further here. Next, we will focus on explaining the changes to B, changes to I through L, and the additions of N and A.

Systemwide Base Mining Rate

Like in Pre-Mainnet mining, all of the terms in the Mainnet mining formula above can be expressed in Pi per hour and are designed to be a multiple of B. Hence, the equation can also be re-written as below. Every Pioneer can mine at least the Systemwide Base Mining Rate everyday, and will be able to mine at a higher rate if they also have other types of contributions that are calculated as multiples of B.

M = B • (1 + S + L) • (1 + N + E + A + X)

Unlike in the pre-Mainnet mining, B in Mainnet mining as in the formula above is no longer a constant across all Pioneers at a given point in time, but is calculated in real time and dynamically adjusted based on a yearly supply cap. 

Given a yearly supply limit, it is impossible to keep a constant B like in the pre-Mainnet period because it’s unpredictable how much each Pioneer mines and how many Pioneers are actively mining during a period of time. The pre-Mainnet model was designed to incentivize growth during the beginning years to bootstrap the network. As the network achieves a certain scale, it also needs to ensure the overall health of the ecosystem. Therefore, an exponential issuance of the tokens through exponential network growth and a constant mining rate does not make sense any longer. The shift of B from being a constant to being dynamically adjusted throughout the year results from the need to incentivize Pioneers’ contributions meritocratically but also to keep the total rewards within a limit. 

Thus, to solve the yearly limit problem while ensuring fairness for whoever mined Pi, B of a given day in the year is calculated as below. Here a day is defined as the last 24 hours before the moment a Pioneer starts a new mining session. Hence, different Pioneers will have slightly different days relative to their time of mining, and thus, potentially a slightly different B based on the calculation below. Each Pioneer’s B of their day stays constant through their mining session, that is, over the next 24 hours from the moment they start their mining session. B is calculated as follows:

• Divide the remaining total Pi supply of the year by the number of days left in the year to get day_supply based on the remaining yearly supply,

• add the multiples of B from all Pioneers actively mining within the last 24 hours, which represents a diverse set of Pioneers’ contributions, in the Mainnet mining formula above to get the sum_of_B_multiples of the whole network for that 24-hour window, and 

• further divide day_supply by sum_of_B_multiples and 24 hours to get B of that specific mining session.

Hence, for a given day of the year, 

B = day_supply / (sum_of_B_multiples • 24h)

Under this framework, B on different days of the year will be different depending on how many Pioneers mined in the last 24 hours as well as what and how much contributions they made to receive the extra multiples of B by running nodes, using utilities apps or lockups, etc. This model also addresses any uncertainty with having X(B)—future types of contribution rewards for Pioneers—in the formula. Regardless of how much X is going to be, it will be kept within the same yearly supply limit without increasing the total supply and will only affect the division of rewards among different types of contributions. This dynamic mechanism allows Pioneers themselves, in a decentralized way, to make sure that (1) the rewards do not exceed the yearly supply limit, (2) the distribution of the yearly supply does not end early in the year, and (3) the rewards are divided meritocratically.  

For purposes of illustration, let’s suppose there are only two Pioneers on a given day and B is the mining rate (expressed in Pi/day for this illustration)—a constant during a specific Pioneer mining session, but dynamically adjusted across different days:

Pioneer 1 has no app engagement (A=0), is not operating a Node (N=0), has no security connections (S=0), and has no active Referral Team members (E=0). They are in their 11th mining session (N=10) and are locking up 100% of their mined Pi (Lp=1) for 3 years (Lt=2). Pioneer 1’s mining rate on this day is: 

M1 = I(B,L,S) + 0 + 0 + 0, or

M1 = B + {2 • 1 • log(10)} • B + 0, or

M1 = 3B

Pioneer 2 has no app engagement (A=0), is not operating a Node (N=0), has no lockup (L=0), and has no active Referral Team members (E=0). They have a full Security Circle. Pioneer 2’s mining rate on this day is: 

M2 = I(B,L,S) + 0 + 0 + 0, or

M2 = B + 0 + {0.2 • min(Sc,5) • B}, or

M2 = B + {0.2 • 5 • B}, or

M2 = 2B

Here, Total Pi to be mined in the whole network on this day = M1 + M2 = 5B

Let’s assume there are 500 Pi and 50 days left in the year.

Therefore, Total Pi available to be mined for this day = 500 Pi / 50 days = 10 Pi/day

Solving B based on the two equations above, 

5B=10 Pi ⇒ B = 2 Pi/day (or 0.083 Pi/hour)

Accordingly, Pioneers 1 and 2 will have their actual mining rates as follows:

M1 = 3 • 2 Pi/day = 6 Pi/day (or 0.25 Pi/hour)

M2 = 2 • 2 Pi/day = 4 Pi/day (or 0.17 Pi/hour)

Pioneer Base Mining rate

By comparison, the individual Pioneer base mining rate in the pre-Mainnet mining formula includes only system-wide base mining rate and Security Circle rewards. At Mainnet, a new component, lockup reward, is added to individual Pioneer base mining rate I. Lockup rewards L, along with the system-wide base mining rate B and Security Circle reward S, constitute the individual Pioneer base mining rate I. Since I is used as an input to calculate all the other rewards,  as a result, the Security Circle and lockup rewards enhance the total Pioneer mining rate by: (1) by directly adding to the individual Pioneer base mining rate and (2) by boosting the any Referral Team reward E, nodes reward N, and app usage reward A.

Lockup Reward

At Mainnet, the lockup reward is meant to support a healthy and smooth ecosystem and incentivize long-term engagement with the network, while the network is bootstrapping the economy and creating demands. It is an important decentralized macroeconomic mechanism to moderate circulating supply in the market, especially in the early years of the open market when utilities are being created. One important goal of the Pi Network is to create a utility-based ecosystem of apps. Transactions for real goods and services in the ecosystem, rather than just speculative trading, are intended to determine the utility of Pi. As we launch the Enclosed Network phase of the Mainnet, one of the main areas of focus will be to support and grow the Pi app developer community and nurture more Pi apps to grow. In the meantime, Pioneers can choose to lock up their Pi to help create a stable market environment for the ecosystem to mature and for more Pi apps to emerge and provide compelling use cases for spending Pi – to ultimately create organic demands through utilities.

The lockup reward formula is reprinted here:

L(B) = Lt • Lp • log(N) • B, where 

Lt is the Lockup Time period multiplier of B.

0              → Lt = 0

2 weeks   → Lt = 0.1 

6 months → Lt = 0.5  

1 year      → Lt = 1    

3 years    → Lt = 2 

Lp is the Lockup Percentage multiplier of B, where

the Lockup Percentage is the lockup amount over the Mainnet Balance transferred from one’s previous mining rewards (Lb), and the Lockup Percentage multiplier is as follows.

0% → Lp = 0

25% → Lp = 0.25 

50% → Lp = 0.5

90% → Lp = 0.9

100% → Lp = 1.0

150% → Lp = 1.5

200% → Lp = 2

log(N) is the logarithmic value of the total number of previous mining sessions (N).

Pioneers will have the opportunity to voluntarily lock up their Pi to earn the right to mine at a higher rate. First of all, the prerequisite of the lockup reward is that the Pioneer must be actively mining. Without mining in the first place, there will be no lockup rewards for any inactive mining sessions, even if Pi is locked up. As expressed in the formula above, all that the lockup does is to provide multipliers to B, so there will be no lockup rewards if B is 0 (which means the Pioneers is not mining). 

Secondly, the lockup reward is positively associated with the contribution to the lockup, i.e. the duration of the lockup time period (Lt) and the amount locked up. However the lockup amount is accounted for by the percentage of a Pioneer’s total Pi mined (Lp). The maximum Pi that a Pioneer can lock up is twice as much as their Mainnet Balance that got transferred from their prior mining in the mobile app (Lb), i.e. 200% Lb. The reasons for having a 2X maximum lockup amount of one’s transferred Mainnet Balance (Lb) are to 1) prevent exploitation of the lockup reward and 2) further encourage other contributions to the Pi ecosystem, such as further boosting their mining, running nodes and using apps. This, in a sense, favors Pioneers who mine and make other types of contributions to the network. 

Thirdly, Log(N) offers a higher lockup incentive to Pioneers who have a long mining history and presumably a large transferable balance to lock up. While the lockup reward formula generally favors equality by accounting for not the absolute amount but the percentage of their transferred balance (Lp) — which allows smaller accounts with a short mining history to lock up small amounts and yet receive the same lockup reward multiplier as big accounts — we need to add a Log(N) factor that accounts for miners with a long mining history, to counterbalance the bias in favor of Pioneers with small balances and provide enough incentive for long-history Pioneers with bigger balances. However, the effect of mining history on lockup rewards also needs to be capped. Thus, the formula applies a logarithm to the number of previous mining sessions N. For example, if a Pioneer mined almost everyday for the last 3 years, their total previous mining sessions (N) will be about 1,000. In this scenario, Log(1,000) equals 3, adding another multiplier to B in their lockup rewards. Keep in mind that to achieve meaningful lockup rewards for long-mining-history Pioneers, the amount of Pi they have to lock up is much more than smaller accounts. 

Fourthly, one Pioneer can voluntarily have multiple lockups at different times with different amounts and durations. The calculation of the total lockup rewards for this Pioneer with i number of different lockups is to find the total lockcup reward multiplier of B, as expressed in the formula below. The formula below is the equivalent to the lockup reward formula above, with the only difference being that it accounts for multiple lockups of the same Pioneer to calculate their total lockup rewards, e.g. different durations (Lti) and different amounts (Lci) of each lockup at different time:

L(B)=iLtiLcilog(Ni)LbB

The purpose of this formula is to calculate the total lockup rewards based proportionally on each lockup’s amount (Lc) over the total Mainnet Balance from previous mining (Lb) as a weight, multiplied by their respective lockup time period (Lt) and Log(n). So that, even though there are multiple lockups of the same Pioneer, more lockups with different settings will proportionally add to their total lockup rewards. The values of Lt, Lc, and log(N) are calculated and multiplied for each lockup i and then summed across various i’s, which is then divided by the value of Lb at a given mining session, to arrive at the value of L(B) for that mining session. This formula ensures that regardless of the Lb, as long as the Pioneer maintains the same percentage of their lockup amount over their Lb, the total lockup rewards multiplier will remain the same. 

Lastly, when can a Pioneer lock up Pi? Pioneers can decide their lockup duration and lockup percentage of their transferable balance anytime they want as an overall account setting in the Pi app. They can even preselect these settings before they’re KYC’ed or ready to migrate to the Mainnet.  As they and their Referral Team/Security Circle pass KYC, more of their Mobile Balance will become transferable. At the moment of the migration of their Transferable Balance to Mainnet, their preselected setting of lockup duration and percentage will automatically apply to the amount of balance transferred, resulting in two types of balances on the Mainnet: lockup balance and free balance, both of which will be recorded on the Mainnet blockchain and reside in the Pioneer’s non-custodial Pi wallet. Thus, lockups cannot be reversed once confirmed and must remain locked up for the entirety of the chosen duration due to the nature of blockchain. Any changes to this Pioneer's lockup setting will take effect in their next balance transfer to the Mainnet. 

This account-wide lockup setting allows Pioneers to lock up a maximum of 100% of their transferable balance from mobile to Mainnet. After Mainnet launches and Pioneers transfer their balances, Pioneers can also lock up more Pi directly on the Mainnet through a slightly different lockup interface later on. At that time, Pioneers can lock up as much as 200% of their already-transferred Mainnet balance acquired from their previous mining. The additional lockup allowance for more Pi than individually mined by the Pioneer can come from utility-based Pi apps transactions, i.e., making Pi from selling goods and services.