What Is Pi Network's KYC?

Four months after the mainnet launch, the long-awaited asset migration for the tens of millions of users of Pi Network has fallen into a technical quagmire. As June 28, Pi2Day, approaches—an important milestone that the community holds great expectations for—issues with KYC (Know Your Customer) verification have erupted, leading to a situation where a large number of users’ assets are “locked up,” wallets are cleared, processes are stalled, and support is lacking, resulting in a creeping crisis of trust.

Design Intent: When Technological Innovation Meets Compliance Needs

The KYC mechanism of Pi Network is not a hasty creation. Architecturally, it integrates multiple cutting-edge technologies, striving to strike a balance between user convenience, privacy protection, and legal compliance:

• AI + Dual Verification System: On one hand, it utilizes AI (such as ChatGPT) for automated document recognition and liveness detection; on the other hand, it introduces community crowdsourced review to cross-verify the authenticity of user-submitted information.
• Dynamic verification strategy: The system intelligently adjusts the audit strictness based on user account activity (such as the number of security circle nodes). New users face higher thresholds, while long-term active users enjoy a smoother verification experience.
• Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) safeguards privacy: User sensitive data is stored in an encrypted form, with only necessary fields opened to regulatory agencies, achieving the privacy protection goal of “proving identity without revealing information.”
• Token distribution compliance result: Users who did not pass KYC will have their Pi in the account reclaimed to the miner reward pool, ensuring that the mainnet token distribution comes entirely from participants with compliant identities.

Real Dilemma: KYC Failures Lead to Migration Disasters

Despite the advanced design concepts, the KYC processes in reality have become a “roadblock” for users in their migration journey. As the Pi2Day upgrade approaches, the issues are surging dramatically:

1. Status synchronization failure, users trapped in a “verification black hole”: many users who passed KYC months ago find their status unable to synchronize between the Pi App and Pi Browser, showing as “Tentative Approval”, which is neither successful nor failed - but indefinitely stuck in review. Although the team recently urgently launched a “synchronize status button”, the repair effects vary, and many users still find their status stagnant after clicking.
2. 2FA failure, security measures becoming obstacles: The two-factor authentication (2FA) system introduced to enhance security has crashed on a large scale. Users report not receiving verification emails, or that links have expired or returned errors, and even after triggering 2FA, tokens are rolled back to the mobile app, forcing them to go through the entire process again. An angry user of six years commented: “Give me the damn $Pi. I’ve worked hard for six years… Why this constant delay?”
3. Balance evaporation, trust undermined: The most critical issue is that even if users complete all steps, the wallet balance still shows as zero. Some users briefly see tokens appearing before they disappear, and some users’ unlocked tokens “vanish into thin air,” never reaching the mainnet wallet. Technical failures combined with slow customer service responses leave users in helpless panic, even giving scammers impersonating customer service the opportunity to take advantage.

Deep-rooted Contradiction: KYC Dilemma Reflects Pi’s Structural Crisis

On the surface, it seems to be a technical failure, but the chaos surrounding KYC actually exposes the more fundamental governance and ecological shortcomings of Pi Network:

• The Pain of Centralized Governance: On-chain data shows that the core team controls as much as 62.8 billion Pi tokens (accounting for the majority of the known supply), and there are only 3 core validator nodes (validator1-3) operating across the entire network, far fewer than Bitcoin’s 21,000 or Ethereum’s 6,600 nodes. This highly centralized architecture raises serious concerns about the responsiveness to technical failures and decision-making efficiency.
• The ecosystem is weak, and the token value lacks support: The current trading price of Pi is about $0.54, down over 75% from the historical high of $2.98, and has dropped another 27% in the past month. This price largely stems from IOU (I Owe You) trades on small exchanges, rather than the real mainnet Pi. The mainnet is still in a “semi-closed” state, lacking stablecoin trading pairs, support from mainstream exchanges (such as Binance/Coinbase), and DeFi applications with real demand, facing the harsh reality of a $100 billion market cap fantasy with “no one to take over.”
• Lack of transparency, community patience running out: The founder couple, Nicolas, has long been criticized as “delaying experts”: the mainnet launch timeline is vague, the token economic model is not disclosed, and financial reports are absent. While promoting the “ecological vision” at the conference, allegations have emerged of suspected OTC sales of tokens to recoup funds, further eroding community trust.

Pi2Day: Final Redemption or Trust’s Endgame?

June 28 Pi2Day is seen by the community as a key turning point. The focus of anticipation is on two points:

• Technical repair commitment fulfilled: The team claims to be working hard to resolve the KYC/2FA synchronization issue, but has not provided a clear timeline.
• Ecological breakthrough signal released: over 40% of community users predict that Pi2Day will announce the listing of PI on Binance; there are also reports that a batch of new ecological applications will be unveiled simultaneously. If true, this could significantly enhance liquidity and use cases.

If Pi2Day once again turns out to be “loud thunder but little rain,” the combination of technical failures and unlocking expectations (currently 4.78 billion PI is locked, accounting for 75.8% of the circulating supply) may trigger greater selling pressure, leading to a complete collapse of the already fragile price of $0.54.

Conclusion: From KYC to KYT - Pi Needs to Prove More Than Just Identity

The KYC crisis of Pi Network fundamentally reflects the brutal gap between technological idealism and scalable practice. User verification is not only a legal requirement but also a validation of the project’s commitment to itself. The Pi2Day on June 28 is no longer just a festival, but a litmus test for whether the Pi ecosystem can transform from an “emotional consumer product” into a true “value-carrying network.” When the community shifts from asking “When will Pi reach $10” to questioning “Is Pi worth $1,” the answer may not lie in the code, but in whether the team is willing to break the closed-off nature and rebuild trust through transparency and collaboration.