Pi Network Announcement: Pi’s Open Network Plan

We are pleased to announce that we intend to go to the Open Pi Network period of Mainnet in the year of 2024, if the following three conditions are met!

There is no specific date set. These three essential conditions depend on the collective efforts of Pioneers, community developers, and the Core Team, in addition to uncontrollable external factors.

Such conditions are based on Pi Network’s long-term objectives and strategies, and take into consideration the feasibility of their accomplishments within the year of 2024.

Pi Network, Pi Blockchain, Pi Open Mainnet 2024

Conditions for having Open Network in 2024

Condition 1: Finish any Open Network preparation work in technology, product, business and legal following the consistent strategies of Pi Network.

Most technical and product milestones of such preparation work are listed under different projects in the V2 Roadmap also released today, except for work in the business and legal side. The V2 Roadmap also excludes some technical and product milestones due to security reasons or because they relate to stealth projects that are meant to be published later. The V2 Roadmap released today will be further supplemented and polished later, and the status of milestones (i.e., whether they are in History, In Progress or in Future Pipeline) will also continuously be updated throughout the year. The work to achieve this condition will be primarily done by the Core Team. As of now, we are on track to fulfill Condition 1.

Condition 2: Achieve the following goals in network KYC, migration and utility creation.

This condition is consistent with the Enclosed Network objectives from the updated Roadmap chapter of the Pi Whitepaper published in December 2021, such as reaching critical mass of KYC identity-verified Pioneers on the Mainnet blockchain and having diverse utilities of the Pi cryptocurrency in the Pi ecosystem. These objectives are paramount to the success of the Open Network and ecosystem in line with Pi’s vision to build the world’s most inclusive peer-to-peer ecosystem and online experience, fueled by Pi. The targeted milestones below help specify what these Enclosed Network goals mean in concrete terms (per our community’s request), while considering the feasibility for the community to achieve them within the year of 2024.

The specific targets for meeting this Open Network condition are as follows:

KYC and Migration

15 million Pioneers have passed KYC including fully and tentatively KYC’ed; and
10 million Pioneers have migrated to the Mainnet.

Utility

100 real Pi apps that (1) are on the Mainnet or are Mainnet-ready, (2) comply with the Pi platform policies, (3) solve a true need and bring utility to the Pi ecosystem, and (4) are a distinct application (i.e., not simply an unmodified clone of the demo app or another Pi app).

As reference, the current data about the above variables are 8 million KYC’ed Pioneers including fully and tentatively KYC’ed, 3.9 million migrated, and about 40 real Pi apps that we preliminarily deemed as meeting the standards above, although there are many more Pi apps on the Testnet or fulfilling a subset of the standards above which can be improved to qualify during the year.

This condition will be primarily driven by the decentralized efforts of the community with the Core Team’s support. While the Core Team will continue to provide technical and product support, to meet the KYC and migration goals will require the community to mobilize itself through decentralized efforts to have more Pioneers join, re-engage, apply, validate and pass in the KYC process, and complete their Mainnet Checklist to migrate. The utility goals rely on community developers to build and launch Pi apps following the Pi policies with the technical, product, design, program and mentorship support of the Core team.

Condition 3: The absence of an unfavorable external environment which would hinder the success of Open Network.

In short, world events affect currencies, and Pi is no different. While we do not control what happens in the world, we do control our launch and will not jeopardize the community’s hard work and dedication with a reckless move to Open Network.

The timing of Open Network will need to incorporate these global factors that are beyond the control of the Core Team or the Pioneer community. These factors include macroeconomic crises, unfavorable legal or regulatory developments, industry uncertainties, pandemics, wars, or any number of unpredictable, uncontrollable, and/or unforeseeable external factors inhospitable to the launch of Open Network.

These three conditions will help determine the timing of the Open Network. We hope the network can achieve them in the year of 2024, with our decentralized efforts and with the absence of unfavorable uncontrollable external factors. If such conditions are not met, then Open Network may be delayed to ensure a more successful transition for all Pioneers. All in all, the decision on Open Network’s launch and its timing will be made to best serve Pi’s vision, the community and the network.

We know that this announcement will be met with jubilation and excitement within the Pi community, and we hope that each Pioneer takes it upon themselves to help achieve the above goals.

We wish that all Pioneers enjoy a wonderful end of the year holiday season, and use this information to truly engage with Pi and our community to work towards the Open Network in 2024!

Below are some important Q&As for this announcement.

Is there a guarantee that Open Network will happen in 2024?
No, there is no such guarantee. However, this announcement shares the true plan and the process that the Core Team has for the Open Network move. It also sheds light on more specific conditions and milestones for us to achieve Open Network, and who and what are the primary drivers behind these conditions and milestones. Clear distribution of responsibility guides productive execution. As explained above, it depends on the collective efforts of the Core Team, community developers, and Pioneers to push us through. Even if the Core Team and Pioneers were to fulfill two of the conditions, the uncontrollable and unpredictable environmental factors (i.e., the third condition) can still possibly force the network to stay in the Enclosed Network period and continue to build, adjusting to the new global realities.

How can the Pioneer community contribute to our progress towards Open Network?
The Open Network move in 2024 depends on YOU, especially goals listed in Condition 2. Pioneer contributions are critical to both KYC/Mainnet Migration and utilities goals. For KYC, you can (1) first complete your KYC application and Mainnet Checklist, (2) validate available KYC applications after you pass your KYC, and (3) invite your Security Circle, Referral Team, as well as your colleagues, friends, and family or anyone to complete their KYC applications and finish the Mainnet Checklist.

For utilities, if you are a developer, (1) you can build a Pi App for this community of tens of millions of Pioneers from a variety of possible use cases without any prior blockchain experience. If you are not a developer, (2) you can invite developers from your personal and professional network to create a Pi App under our Developer Ambassador program and receive a reward of 1000 Pi. Utilities are not just created, but also used. Therefore, whether or not you are a developer, (3) you can support the network utility goals by (a) using Pi Apps on the Pi Browser, (b) sharing Pi Apps content to the world via PiNet, and even (c) using your Pi in your local businesses.

Why are the KYC and migration goals achievable by and primarily dependent on the community?
The overarching crucial fact is that almost all Pioneers are eligible to apply for KYC and the majority of all applications can pass KYC within a short amount of time. So with a growing community of over 47 million members, these targets of 15 million KYC passed and 10 million migrated should be achievable. While the Core Team’s support work for Condition 2 will continue to focus on resolving the corner-case applications that are stuck in the KYC process, we need to recognize a network-level fact that the long tail of corner cases will not be the biggest driver in achieving the target numbers of KYC and migration. These KYC and Mainnet migration milestones in Condition 2 will primarily rely on the community to mobilize itself through decentralized efforts to have more Pioneers join, apply, validate and pass in the KYC process and complete the Mainnet checklist to migrate.

What is the purpose of KYC and why is there a delay for some accounts?
As communicated in the 2021 December Whitepaper and many KYC announcements (such as 1, 2, 3), the purpose of the KYC is to ensure the integrity of the network by preventing fake accounts, policy violators and bad actors from going through while allowing honest miners to pass, and to comply with laws such as anti-money laundering regulations by preventing sanctioned accounts from passing. In making such determination of accounts, there will be additional scrutiny and checks on a small minority of applications that will inevitably increase their processing time to ensure fair and accurate results as much as possible. Such accounts that need extra checks are not necessarily fake accounts, policy violators or bad actors, but the determination of such may be more difficult than usual and thus take extra time. Resolving the corner cases in KYC applications to allow honest Pioneers to pass and migrate will be a major focus of the Core Team in 2024. This will include providing information and next steps for stuck applications to take and informing applicants of any rejections.

What types of Pi Apps do not count as “real” apps for the utility goals in Condition 2?
Apps that are simply replicas or instantiations of other Pi apps without a meaningful distinction, violate the Pi policies, do not intend to really engage users, or do not bring utility to the Pi ecosystem are not counted toward the utility goal of 100 real Pi apps. The criteria for what counts as a real Pi app will be further calibrated throughout the year.

What is Open Network?
On December 28, 2021, Pi Network launched its Mainnet blockchain in an enclosed state, meaning that the Mainnet is live but with a firewall that prevents any unwanted external connectivity. Moving to Open Network means that the firewall will be removed, allowing for any external connectivity, e.g., to other networks, wallets, and anyone who wants to connect to the Pi Mainnet blockchain. API calls will not be firewalled, and Pioneers will be able to run their own Mainnet Pi Nodes and API services. Read the updated Roadmap chapter of the 2021 December Whitepaper to learn more.

How can we know the progress toward the Open Network goal in 2024?
In 2024, the Core Team will continuously provide updates on the network’s progress under Conditions 1 and 2 through the Roadmap itself and/or announcements. This way, Pioneers as well as the Core Team can check on our collective progress, assess where the gaps lie, and focus our efforts accordingly to accomplish our collective goal of Open Network transition in the year 2024.