Pi Network reaches 10M KYC'd users, but token is still not tradeable

The Pi Network app now has more than 10 million users who have verified their identities by completing the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, according to an April 16 announcement.

 The Pi team has promised that it will launch a mainnet and that its tokens will become tradeable if a series of milestones are reached, including after 15 million users pass KYC. With 10 million accounts already verified, this implies that the KYC goal will be reached when another 5 million users complete verification.

Despite this achievement, business analytics platform AIMultiple has claimed that Pi may bring "no value to users,” since they “can not yet exchange their Pi coins with fiat currency on exchanges.” Pi Network was launched in 2019 as a centralized app . Users produce Pi tokens by pushing a button from within the app each day, and Pi cannot presently be transferred to other users through a wallet.

According to the announcement, 10 million users, called “Pioneers,” have completed identity verification through the app’s native identity verification solution, Pi KYC. This solution provides “a unique and proprietary approach that combines machine automation and crowdsourced, hyperlocal human verification to accomplish secure, accurate and efficient KYC,” the announcement claimed.

Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis, co-founder and head of technology for Pi, stated that the achievement “proves that the industry doesn’t need to depend on fiat services to succeed.” He also claimed that the new KYC system will “allow other Web3 services involving ownerships of assets to achieve their identity verification needs through Pi.”

In December, the team announced  plans to launch an “Open Network” or mainnet in 2024, if certain conditions are met. These conditions include that 100 Pi apps must have been developed, in addition to the 15 million users passing KYC. In addition, the team must have completed all “technology, product, business and legal” work needed to launch the network, and there must not be an “unfavorable external environment” that would hinder the network's success. The team has not yet announced a specific date for mainnet launch.

AIMultiple analyst Cem Dilmegani claimed that Pi Network will probably not benefit users, stating, “[w]e don’t expect anyone except the founders to benefit from PI Network in a significant way.” That's because it “works like a direct selling or affiliate marketing system, promising future rewards to users for bringing in new users.” Dilmegani claimed that the affiliate marketing system is used to drive traffic to the app, which is, in turn, used to sell advertising for the benefit of the app’s developer. “Founders are already benefitting from the app,” Dilmegani stated, as they “launched optional video ads at launch to monetize the active user base.”

Dilmegani acknowledged that the Pi team could eventually launch a blockchain mainnet. However, he argued that this was unlikely because it would cause the token to rapidly fall in value as users sold into the market. “Then, the coin would not be valuable enough for people to keep on logging in to click,” which would potentially eliminate the value of the app to advertisers.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Pi team for comment. In response, a representative acknowledged that Pi has taken an “unconventional and novel” approach to blockchain development, such as providing “an intermediate Enclosed Network period of mainnet" instead of launching an open network immediately. This novel approach was taken to “enable utilities building on the platform and KYC processing of millions of our community members, to help the community further build a robust network for the benefit of the whole community before we launch the Open Network."

The representative claimed that Pi has accomplished multiple goals since its launch, including the creation of "Pi mining mobile app, Pi Browser mobile app as the interface of the Web3 ecosystem, Node application, Testnet and Mainnet blockchains, Wallet, developer platform, a novel KYC solution" and more. The representative argued that the decision to not launch an open network right away was worth it, stating "we believe anything worthwhile takes time and patience and such components are essential for a healthy launch of the Open Network." 

According to a March 3, 2021 report from Vietnamese media outlet vnExpress, Pi Network is the 22nd most downloaded iOS app in Vietnam. In May 2021, a Vietnamese news outlet reported that Pi had inadvertently leaked images of users’ identity cards to a hacker. However, a Pi Network spokesperson stated that the app handled KYC through a third-party and did not store this data on its servers, nor was there any evidence of a data leak.

Related: Vietnam government warns about crypto trading risks as Pi gains in popularity.