Big Dog Sharing Article:
Many Pi enthusiasts often ask me to predict the future price of Pi or when it will reach the top five in market cap. Honestly, if I had the ability to predict specific timing and prices, wouldn’t I have already made a fortune with Bitcoin, Ethereum, spot trading, or futures contracts? I truly cannot predict the future, but today I want to seriously talk about Pi. There are many aspects that can be further detailed, but writing is tiring. I believe this article will give both veteran and new pioneers, as well as observers, a deeper understanding of Pi. (If you don’t want to read my “nonsense” seriously, please skip or even block me. If you’re here to argue or curse, please shut up.)
Over the years, Pi’s value has been genuinely built through its ecosystem. It’s not something that can be sustained just by “mining” alone; it’s built step by step—using, creating, and spending within the ecosystem. From the early days of closed mainnet mining and user accumulation, to the open mainnet at the end of 2025, and the series of updates on Pi Day, March 14, 2026, Pi has been making solid progress. The official team has completed several key milestones: KYC verified 17.7 million users, over 16.5 million migrated to the mainnet (including 119,000+ users in the second phase); currently, over 421,000 active nodes are running stably; more than 300 apps are live in the ecosystem; Pi Launchpad MVP is live on Testnet; Mainnet Pi Payments are integrated via App Studio; node software upgraded to v20.2, Protocol 20 is online, v23.0 is planned for completion in May; the first round of KYC Validator rewards has begun, with a reward pool of 16.57 million Pi. These are not just slogans but real ecosystem developments. For example, KYC is not only used internally but also planned to be offered as a service externally, providing identity verification capabilities to other Web3 projects and traditional enterprises; node upgrades are not just for security but also laying the foundation for decentralized AI computing.
Looking at these developments across four dimensions—software, hardware, virtual, and physical—the process of establishing real value for Pi is already very clear.
**Software Dimension:** This is Pi’s “brain” and rule system, including Pi Browser, Wallet, App Studio, Launchpad, and continuous node software upgrades. Developers can directly access the official developer platform: after the Pi Day update, Pi Payments on Mainnet has been implemented, allowing developers to integrate real Pi payments into their apps in just a few minutes; Launchpad explicitly requires “real apps first, then ecosystem tokens,” effectively avoiding hype. This software system lowers the barrier to participation, making it easy for ordinary people to get involved in building. The official push for KYC as a Service is open to external use, further expanding the ecosystem’s inclusiveness.
**Hardware Dimension:** This is Pi’s most prominent feature. Currently, over 421,000 active nodes form a dormant CPU capacity exceeding one million. The official team has partnered with OpenMind and successfully completed AI image recognition testing, which can return results in seconds. Detailed case studies are available on the official blog. Node upgrades from v19.9 and v20.2 are progressing steadily, with subsequent versions v21.2, v22.1, and v23.0 also on schedule. Node operators can voluntarily contribute idle computing power and receive additional rewards. This has transformed ordinary users’ devices into a global distributed computing network, truly playing a role in the AI era.
**Virtual Dimension:** This is the core on-chain part. Protocol 20 is live, laying the foundation for smart contracts; Pi DEX is progressing; some of the 300+ ecosystem apps support real Pi payments; Pi Launchpad is testing token issuance on Testnet (see official blog for details); KYC Validator has completed 526 million verifications, and the 16.57 million Pi rewards have begun distribution. Pi is shifting from a mere digital symbol to a value carrier capable of real transactions and forming a closed loop. It’s important to clarify the meaning of 1 Pi = 1 Pi. Five years ago, I explained this macro concept in a live broadcast, emphasizing that Pi’s core is not chasing speculative prices on external exchanges but establishing real utility within its own ecosystem—making 1 Pi genuinely correspond to 1 Pi’s purchasing power. Whether buying goods, services, or completing payments and transactions, Pi itself serves as a stable value unit. That live video is still available online. Pi is not a stablecoin (it’s not pegged to USD or other fiat currencies, nor does it rely on complex algorithms or reserves to maintain price stability), but internally, it is gradually becoming a stable unit of value. This is because Pi’s design focuses on utility: through in-app purchases, local P2P trading, merchant payments, and other real-world scenarios, 1 Pi can reliably exchange for goods and services of equivalent value within the ecosystem—not relying on external market speculation. As the ecosystem matures and transaction volume and adoption increase, Pi’s purchasing power within the community will become more predictable and stable, forming an intrinsic stability based on real use and consensus. More importantly, once Pi DEX is officially launched, third-party stablecoin issuers (or even the official team under compliance) can issue compliant stablecoins like USDPI, following US laws and stablecoin regulations (similar to Trump’s USD1). Merchants receiving Pi can immediately convert it into such stablecoins on Pi DEX if they worry about short-term price fluctuations, locking in value. This flexible mechanism reassures merchants to accept Pi payments without bearing volatility risk, while Pi remains the primary circulation and value measurement unit in the ecosystem, maintaining core utility. This makes the 1 Pi = 1 Pi concept more practical and operable, providing a crucial guarantee for large-scale adoption. When the ecosystem explodes, its quality will shift from grassroots and low-quality to professional and high-quality. Daily transaction volume and settlement on Pi could reach hundreds of billions of dollars, continuously increasing—that is, the entire Pi flow will become larger and larger. At that point, Pi’s real value will naturally reflect in its price, leading to rapid growth similar to Ethereum and Solana in their early days. This concept is already proven: the official focus is not “how much Pi is worth,” but rather to use the ecosystem first, creating a closed-loop purchasing power within Pi. Through real-world scenarios like in-app purchases, local P2P trading, and merchant payments, 1 Pi can exchange for utility of equivalent value. As the ecosystem expands and merchants increase, the goods and services purchasable with Pi will grow, making its internal value more stable. It anchors Pi’s value firmly on real utility and community consensus, rather than speculative market cap fluctuations. Compared to projects that chase high prices initially and then see their ecosystems collapse, Pi’s “build the ecosystem first, then let the value emerge naturally” approach has proven to be healthier and more sustainable.
**Physical Dimension:** This is the most grounded and crucial part. Currently, the Map of Pi shows over 148,000 merchants and sellers, and over 2.1 million users participating in local trade, service exchanges, and time exchanges (data from community and official updates). Although most merchants are still individual or small businesses, and daily Pi transactions are relatively limited, this is normal at this stage. Any mature ecosystem requires a process: from creating many seemingly “useless” early applications and participants, to gradually evolving into a system with real value and demand, where the useful ones remain and grow, and the worthless ones are phased out. This is the necessary stage of ecosystem growth from quantity to quality, and Pi is steadily progressing along this path. These four dimensions are closely interconnected: software provides tools and rules, hardware contributes computing power and security, virtual realizes digital flow, and physical completes real-world implementation. They support each other and are indispensable. The official team has been steadily solidifying the ecosystem—from large-scale KYC unlocks (early this year, releasing 2.5 million restricted users), to node upgrades and AI testing, to payment integration and Launchpad. Historically, Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) provide clear references. ETH, during the 2020 DeFi Summer, started at about $100–$300 per coin, and with the explosion of protocols like Uniswap and Compound, network usage and TVL skyrocketed, pushing the price to nearly $4,878 in November 2021, with market cap jumping from hundreds of billions to trillions. SOL, during the 2021 NFT and DeFi boom, surged from under $2 at the start of the year to thousands of percent higher, driven by ecosystem scale reaching a critical point, creating positive feedback among developers, users, and trading volume, causing prices to shift from linear growth to exponential acceleration. Pi now has a solid foundation: 17.7 million KYC users, over 421,000 nodes, 300+ apps, and 148K+ merchants. When the ecosystem continues to grow—reaching tens of millions of active users, thousands of high-activity apps, daily transaction volume and TVL entering the billions, and local P2P and merchant adoption fully expanding—Pi’s price will, like ETH in 2020 and SOL in 2021, shift from a linear trend to a clear acceleration. This is not speculation but a network effect validated by ETH and SOL. The current preparations for Pi are aimed at quickly approaching this explosive threshold.
**Macro Perspective:** Pi has already opened a very clear opportunity window for human development. It’s not the traditional government “basic income” (UBI), but a community-driven model creating a Universal High Income (UHI) or Universal Basic Equity (UBE). In today’s AI-accelerated world, Pi enables ordinary people to verify their identity via KYC, contribute computing power through nodes, participate in ecosystem apps, and co-build the network while sharing the value created by AI. Pi clearly demonstrates: it’s not waiting for external rescue but empowering everyone with network equity, participation rights, and upward mobility. 17.7 million KYC users, 421,000 nodes, 300+ apps—these tangible numbers form a decentralized, inclusive, and universal economic system.
The 1 Pi = 1 Pi principle truly puts this inclusive vision into practice—not pursuing overnight riches but allowing everyone to reliably gain their own value through genuine contribution and use. Pi is now on the right track. Although adoption and regulation still pose challenges, its direction is very clear: Pi is not just a coin but a new opportunity platform for humanity in the digital and AI age.
