Pi Network: The First Anniversary of the Open Network

Pi Network: Building an ecosystem of real utility and digital identity

The article recaps first anniversary of the open Pi Network and represents the future vision of the founders, Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan. The project aims to create cryptocurrencies with real utility, which distances itself from speculative trading and focuses on integration into regular trade and services. Key pillars include own KYC system, which is used to verify human identity in the digital world and will now be offered as a service to external entities. The developers emphasize connecting blockchain with artificial intelligence, where the community can provide data for training models in exchange for rewards. The network plans to further expand its ecosystem through support for applications and innovative tokens, which are primarily intended to serve the purpose of acquiring users and developing products. The overall strategy is based on long-term sustainability and mass adoption thanks to an extensive network of verified members and computer nodes.

Video: Celebrate Pi's Open Network Anniversary with Pi Founders Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis
To celebrate the first anniversary of the Open Network, Pi founders Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan answered a series of questions to offer Pioneers more insight into Pi’s strategy, approach, and current work from the Open Network – while also providing a better understanding of the direction and priorities driving Pi’s future development.

Article content 📖

Estimated reading time: 9 minut

• Pi Network: Building an ecosystem of real utility and digital identity
• Podcasts
  • Explanation [Video]
  • Detailed analysis [Audio]
• Infographics
  • The first anniversary of the open network [Infographic]
  • Pi Network – From Vision to Utility [Infographic]
• Pi Network after a year: Why is this “non-conformist” blockchain changing the rules of the game?
  • Insight #1: From Trading “Nothing” to Real Value
  • Insight #2: Tokens as a tool for growth, not for raising capital
  • Insight #3: KYC as a global service in the era of bots and AI
  • Insight #4: Blockchain as infrastructure for the democratization of AI
• Conclusion: The journey that is just beginning
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Podcasts 🎙️ Infographics 🖼️

Podcasts

Explanation [Video]

A structured, comprehensive overview that links individual pieces of information from the article in Czech.

Detailed analysis [Audio]

Live conversation between two moderators, analyzing and connecting topics from the article in Czech.

Infographics

The first anniversary of the open network [Infographic]

Pi Network – From Vision to Utility [Infographic]

Pi Network after a year: Why is this “non-conformist” blockchain changing the rules of the game?

The cryptocurrency world has been in a deep structural identity crisis in recent years. The market is saturated with thousands of tokens whose existence is driven by pure speculation, while their real utility in everyday life remains zero. Most projects focus on how to more efficiently trade “nothing”, leading to a constant disconnect between token design and real innovation.

In this context, Pi Network is a revelation. The project, which just celebrated its first anniversary as an open network (Open Network launched on February 20, 2025), has refused to conform to industry standards since the beginning. The founders themselves describe Pi as a “non-conformist” project. Instead of chasing an immediate listing on exchanges, Pi is focused on building an inclusive ecosystem where digital identity and real production form the basis of a new digital economy.

Insight #1: From Trading “Nothing” to Real Value

While most blockchains address the question “How to trade more efficiently?”, Pi Network asks a much more fundamental question: "What should be traded?"The network's philosophy is based on the belief that DeFi mechanisms (liquidity, AMM) only make sense if they are backed by real production and services.

Integrating cryptocurrencies into local business processes, e-commerce, and social applications is the “harder path” that most projects are reluctant to take. However, without mapping tokens to real goods and services, Web3 will never overcome its own limits. If a token does not reflect anything tangible, it remains just an empty shell for volatility.

“Solving utility for real products and services is a much harder path that requires more perseverance, but it is the only path that leads to a true breakthrough in Web3.” – Dr. Chengdiao Fan

Insight #2: Tokens as a tool for growth, not for raising capital

Pi Network introduces a revolutionary ecosystem token design that fundamentally changes the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) model. While in the traditional crypto world, tokens are primarily used to raise capital from investors, in the Pi ecosystem they are designed as a strategic tool for user acquisition and organic integration into products.

This model, which is now the subject of community discussion within Pi Request for Comment (PRC) on GitHub, define three key differences:

• Functional product prerequisite: Unlike projects that issue a token and then start building, Pi requires developers to have a working application as a condition for launching the token.
• Liquidity instead of capital transfer: All funds raised through the launch programs are not transferred to creators, but are irrevocably invested in liquidity pools (DEX/AMM). This ensures the stability and health of the token from day one.
• Cost per acquisition (CAC) reduction: For startups, customer acquisition costs are extremely expensive. Pi allows founders to use tokens to directly engage millions of already verified users who test the product and provide feedback in exchange for a share of future success.

This approach holds startups accountable. If the product does not provide quality and real value, users will abandon it and the token will naturally expire.

Insight #3: KYC as a global service in the era of bots and AI

In an era where artificial intelligence can perfectly simulate human behavior, the question “Who is a real person?” becomes critical to integrating blockchain into the real economy. Pi Network has answered this challenge by creating Pi KYC – a solution that transforms into a comprehensive “KYC-as-a-Service.”

The uniqueness of this solution lies in its hybrid model, which combines advanced AI with a global network of human validators. The system now integrates not only standard identity verification, but also Sanctions list screening and compliance checks within a single process. Pi is also experimenting with new modalities such as palm-print authenticationto further strengthen authentication in the digital space.

The key expertise lies in the fact that Pi offers its services to other Web3 projects and traditional companies. technology and product (KYC API), not personal user dataIdentity resolution is a prerequisite for on-chain real asset management (RWA).

Insight #4: Blockchain as infrastructure for the democratization of AI

The vision of the founders of Pi Network connects blockchain and AI with the aim of solving a future social problem: How to ensure fair distribution of wealth in an era when AI replaces traditional labor? Pi sees blockchain as an audio-visual mechanism for this distribution.

Pi uses its massive, geographically distributed infrastructure to do this:

• Distributed computing: Over 350,000 active nodes represents huge potential for distributed AI training and inference. This model can help solve current bottlenecks of centralized AI, such as energy concentration, data center limitations, and problems such as "catastrophic forgetting" (catastrophic forgetting) and bottlenecks of the global state of networks.
• Human feedback: Millions of verified people can provide authentic data labeling and reinforcement learning directly through native blockchain payments.

“Pi sees blockchain as a mechanism for the fair distribution of wealth created by AI, preventing value from being concentrated solely in the hands of capital owners.”

Conclusion: The journey that is just beginning

Over the past year, the Pi network has made a huge leap from theory to practice. Since the open network launch on February 20, 2025, we have seen the development of tools such as Pi App Studio (using AI to facilitate app creation), launching DEX/AMM functionalities and strategic investments in startups through Pi Network Ventures.

This is not a sprint for short-term profit, but rather building a system that has the “defensive advantages” of tens of millions of authenticated people and hundreds of thousands of nodes. We are on the threshold of a new era of the digital economy, and the only question left to ask is:

Are we ready for Web3, where the value of a token depends on its actual contribution to your daily life, rather than on stock market charts?

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