Pi Network (PI) Founders Answer Hot Questions: Are Pioneers Happy?

Pi Network’s co-founder Nicolas Kokkalis asserted that KYC and migration remain a top priority.

Earlier this month, Pi Network celebrated the first anniversary of its Open Network launch.

To mark the milestone, the co-founders of the controversial crypto project answered a series of questions to offer users more insight into Pi’s future strategy, approach, and current work.

KYC And More

The co-founders, Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis, started by praising the “incredible advances” in Pi Network’s activity, app development initiatives, and platform-level utility releases over the past year. Fan asserted that in the next 12 months, the team will focus on expanding its ecosystem by creating additional opportunities for users.

Then they moved to the first question: what makes Pi Network different from other blockchains, and why does utility matter? Fan described Pi as “nonconformist,” emphasizing that it sets itself apart in several fundamental ways. She highlighted that the project has never conducted an ICO, is built on a mobile-first approach, is free to mine, and has already amassed tens of millions of verified users worldwide.

From there, the discussion shifted toward Pi Network’s emphasis on real-world utility. Fan explained that Pi’s vision has always centered on enabling tokens to participate in genuine economic activity rather than relying solely on abstract financial mechanisms. In her view, this approach is reinforced by Pi’s fully KYC-verified user base, which the team considers essential for supporting real-world assets and meaningful value creation across the ecosystem.

The next question, “What is the network working on now?” was answered by Kokkalis. He asserted that KYC and migration remain a top priority, adding that the team has started increasing KYC throughput, unblocking more users, boosting speed, and allowing second migrations.

“We are also on track to roll out KYC validator rewards this quarter in a secure and scalable way. In terms of Developer tools and support, we’re supporting developers, lowering the barrier to building on Pi through improved tooling and simpler integrations, including new tools like much faster Pi payment setups, along with ongoing support to help developers launch and scale real utilities,” he added.

Moreover, Kokkalis said the team will continue working on Nodes, protocol upgrades, and components like DEX functionality and liqduity pools.

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Perhaps the most important question intriguing a large part of the community is the significance of the Know-Your-Customer process and what comes next. Kokkalis said the team has spent years building its KYC solution, explaining that because Pioneers are spread across the globe, the system needed to achieve broad geographic coverage and scalability.

The co-founder added that the heavy investment in the function was intentional, as identity verification is important to the integrity and authenticity of the entire network. Looking ahead, he noted that the team intends to offer its KYC technology as a service to external projects, thus turning it into a capability that could support Web3 and traditional businesses.

PI Tokens and AI

Another question for the founders focused on clarifying what Pi ecosystem tokens actually are. Fan explained that those are coins created by the community and issued on Pi.

“As many of you know, ecosystem tokens have already been released on Testnet, and we are finalizing their implementation on Mainnet. While technology and product are obviously important, we believe the most critical factor on Mainnet will be their design,” she added.

Fan believes that the ability to issue tokens is an “important superpower” of Web3, yet she thinks many coins in the crypto space are designed with no real-world use.

The last question focused on the fast-evolving Artificial Intelligence sector and how Pi Network plans to integrate that technology. Fan explained that AI is reshaping how value is created, making it essential for blockchain networks to support real-world production rather than rely on speculation. She stated that Pi’s strategy is to build AI-powered apps using tools such as Pi App Studio.

Are Pioneers Satisfied?

Judging by the comments under Pi Network’s anniversary announcement, plenty of users continue to struggle with major issues and urged the team to act more urgently.

Some Pioneers claimed they’ve been waiting for five-six years to complete the necessary verification steps and migrate to the mainnet, yet still haven’t been able to do so. Others went even further, calling Pi Network “a dirty scam project.”