The Pi Network’s Journey to Decentralization
The Pi Network, established by Stanford graduates Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis and Dr. Chengdiao Fan in 2019, set out boldly to achieve what most people thought was not possible: allowing cryptocurrency mining in a simple, inclusive manner through mobile-first means. After years of development, the network hit its breaking point on February 20, 2025, when the mainnet officially launched, transitioning from an isolated network to a full decentralization of its blockchain.
Today, the Pi Network has posted its Mainnet migration plan on X, detailing the 3 step user transition to the open network. Interestingly, over 12 million Pioneers have been successfully migrated, awarding a badge of honor to the scalability and operating resilience of the network.
Three-Phase Migration Plan
Phase One is already on the road, focusing on Pioneers who have completed the Know Your Customer (KYC). This phase covers the migration of core Pi balances, including validated base mining reward, Security Circle contribution reward, lockup reward for freely locking up Pi, and utility app usage reward earned via usage of Pi apps.
Following this, Phase Two will cover the migration of referral-based mining rewards, which will be deposited into referral team members who themselves have completed KYC. This phase is important to the reward of those who helped create and decentralize the network.
Finally, Phase Three will introduce ongoing periodic migrations, potentially on a monthly or quarterly basis, to handle all remaining and future rewards. These regular updates will cover new mining earnings, additional referral bonuses, continued Node rewards, and app engagement incentives just to support the expanding utility and adoption of the Pi Network.
The report reads, “Note that differences in the UI between the Transferable Balance and the actual migrated balance are as intended, the UI uses simplified calculation estimates to save computation time and resources. The balance that is migrated to a user’s Mainnet Wallet depends on extensive, precise computations that could take a much longer time per user, going through all their past mining sessions and associated bonuses for the past few years.”
The positive developments aside, Pioneers have taken note of some red flags. This includes the lack of clear timelines for the transitions and the absence of an explanation how many Pioneers are still waiting to migrate or how quickly they can be processed. Adding to the concerns is the fact that there appears to be no formal mechanism to contest or correct missing or inaccurate reward data, a glaring oversight for a project that’s been evolving for over six years. Users had hoped that by now, transparency and responsiveness would be a core part of the platform’s operations.
Lord Drey, a Web3 enthusiast bluntly stated, “Any roadmap without a specific time frame is a scam.” Another wrote, “I’ve been supportive for over 6 years, one of your pioneers, early validator, and KYCed. You are being arrogant for seeing our complaints without addressing any of them.” Despite this, the Pi token has shown some resilience. Within just 24 hours, its price climbed by 4.58% to $0.6458, with trading volume also surging by 20%, reaching $145 million.