Pi Network: what it is, and why it is contested
Written by the Crypto Gratis editorial team · Last reviewed
Pi Network is the largest project in this category by registered users and by some distance the most argued about. Both facts deserve to be taken seriously, and most of what is written about it is either promotional or dismissive. This is an attempt at neither.
What it is
Pi launched in 2019 as a mobile app letting users accumulate a token called Pi by opening it and tapping a button once every 24 hours. This is not mining in any computational sense: your phone does no work, and the rate is set by the protocol, adjusted by factors including how many people you have referred.
The project spent several years in an enclosed testnet phase during which tokens existed but could not be moved or traded. An open mainnet launched in early 2025, after which migrated balances became transferable and Pi began trading on some exchanges.
The KYC step, which is the whole thing
Balances in the app do not become real on-chain tokens until the account passes identity verification and the balance is migrated. This is where a large number of long-term participants discovered that years of daily tapping had produced nothing they could use.
If you have an old account and never completed KYC, that is the first thing to check and the reason this page exists. If you are considering starting now, understand that the identity disclosure is where the process leads — it is not optional and it is not at the end.
The criticism, fairly stated
- Referral-weighted rewards. Earning more by recruiting is structurally similar to schemes with poor reputations, whatever the intent.
- The length of the wait. Years passed between accumulating balances and being able to do anything with them, and many users felt the timeline was managed rather than communicated.
- KYC handling. The process has drawn complaints about delays, rejections and unclear appeals — with real balances at stake.
- Expectation management. Community price predictions have consistently been detached from anything the project claimed, and the project has not always moved quickly to correct them.
Against that: it shipped a mainnet, it never sold tokens to users or took deposits, and the community is genuinely enormous. It is neither the clean fraud its harshest critics describe nor the certainty its advocates do.
What we would tell a friend
If you have a balance: complete KYC and migrate. Unmigrated, it is worth nothing at all.
If you are starting from zero today: the accumulation phase that made early accounts worth something is long over, the rate for new users is low, and you are asked for identity documents up front. Your attention is better spent on a project that pays daily from day one.
Either way: never buy Pi from an individual, never pay anyone to speed up verification, and treat any specific future price you are quoted as fiction.
Common questions
Is Pi Network a scam?
Not a straightforward one — it ran for years, launched a mainnet, and never took deposits from users. But it has drawn sustained criticism over referral-weighted rewards, the length of the wait, and its KYC handling. Read the criticism as well as the community.
Does mining Pi cost anything?
No money and effectively no battery — the app does no real computation. It costs your attention daily, your identity documents at KYC, and whatever social capital you spend recruiting others.
I have an old balance. What should I do?
Complete KYC and migrate it. Balances that were never migrated are not tokens; they are numbers in an app. That is the single most valuable thing on this page for a long-time user.
See also: the scams that specifically target Pi users, which are numerous, and how it compares.
Sources
Everything above is based on the following. Where they and we disagree, they are right — check them before you act on anything here.