Key Takeaways

• Despite having been launched in March 2019, the Pi Network’s PI coin is yet to be available on the open market.
• No date for the platform’s mainnet launch has yet been announced. 
• PI is mined by pressing a button on a mobile phone app.

More than four years after it was first announced, the much-touted Pi Network cryptocurrency is still unavailable on the open market. Despite that, though, the coin is still one of the most hotly discussed cryptos out there.

This no mean feat for something that does not have any kind of actual market value. While this year has seen a hackathon and the launch of an online social space, there is still no indication as to people will be able to buy, sell, and trade the PI coin. 

Pi Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But what is Pi Network (PI)? How does Pi Network work? Let’s take a look and see what we can find out and also examine some of the Pi Network price predictions that were being made as of October 2 2023. 

Pi Network (PI) explained

In the world of cryptocurrency, one of the most common ways to make money is through mining a crypto. In the case of such coins as Bitcoin (BTC), involves solving an increasingly complex set of mathematical equations. There is, however, one problem with this. Since the equations get more and more difficult to solve, they require more computational power. As things go on and time progresses, mining moves out of reach of most people and also damages the environment. 

Pi Network  is a crypto platform that aims to make mining crypto simple. Rather than go through the rigmarole of solving equations, people simply tap a button on a mobile phone app to mine the system’s native token, known as PI. 

American academics Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan of Stanford University founded the Pi Network in 2018. It officially launched on 14 March – the so-called Pi Day – the following year. 

Within the Pi Network, there are four types of user. Pioneers mine the coin, contributors give the network a list of trusted users, ambassadors bring new users onto the network using a referral code, and nodes supply computing power using their home computers.

Pi undergoes periodic “halving” to ensure its scarcity. Halving refers to the reduction of the number of coins a miner receives for processing new transactions by half. This typically occurs when it reaches a specific milestone. 

The mining rate for PI initially halved from 1.6 π to 0.8 π per hour when the user count reached 100,000. It halved again to 0.4 π per hour at the 1 million user mark, and again to 0.2 π per hour when there were 10 million users. These rewards will continue to halve, ultimately reaching zero when the network hits one billion users.

Latest PI Network news 

As of March 2023, there were more than 30 million people signed up to the platform. That month, the people behind the system operated a hackathon. In late May, PI launched the Fireside Forum “a true Web3 social platform that fosters authenticity, constructive conversations, and healthier online social interactions by integrating tokenomics into the core of social interactions”.

By September, the platform had launched  a Developer Ambassador Program in a bid to get more people building decentralized applications (DApps) on the system.

There was, however, still no sign of any proper launch date for a Pi Network mainnet.

This meant that there was no official PI price. PI should not be confused with the Pi Network DeFi token. This crypto is based on the Binance blockchain and trades on the PancakeSwap (CAKE) decentralized exchange.

PI Network price predictions 

With that all said and done, let’s look at some of the Pi Network price predictions being made on October 2 2023. Since PI is not yet on the open market, you should realize these forecasts will, by definition, be even more speculative than usual. Most price predictions end up being wrong, anyway. It is also worth noting that many longer-term crypto price predictions are made using an algorithm, which means they can change at any time. 

Short term Pi Network price prediction 

Firstly, CoinCodex  made a hypothetical short-term Pi Network price prediction for 2023 which saw the still-unreleased coin trade at $34.91 on October 7 before reaching $38.21 on November 1. The site’s technical analysis was bearish, with 19 indicators sending negative signals and seven making bullish ones.

Longer-term Pi Network price predictions 

Next, DigitalCoinPrice  went so far as to give an actual Pi Network price of $33.04. It is unclear where it got this information from or how it came about it, or whether it had confused PI with the Pi Network DeFi Token. Anyway, the site’s PI price prediction was pretty optimistic, suggesting that it would be worth $69.76 this year, $78.20 next year and $112.32 the year after that. By 2026, the site said, PI could trade at $142.66, reaching $169.97 in 2028 before closing the decade at $245.32. The site then made a Pi Coin price prediction for 2030 of $245.32, and went on to make a long-term Pi Network price prediction of $638.43 in 2032. 

Meanwhile, PricePrediction.net  was also highly bullish in terms of its Pi Network price prediction. The site said that the crypto would be worth $29.13 this year and $42.32 in 2024. It had a PI Network price prediction for 2025 of $59.15. Moving on, it said PI would hit $85.93 in 2026 and would climb above $100 in 2027 to stand at $122.46. By 2029, the coin was predicted to trade $263.58. The site said it would start the new decade at $375.58 and hit $785.27 in 2032. 

Finally, WalletInvestor  made a fairly optimistic Pi Network crypto price prediction. Coming up with a hypothetical current price – or possibly mixing it up with the Pi Network DeFi Token – of $33.05, it said that, by early October 2023, it could trade $60.43. It then suggested it could reach $174.49 in five years time. 

Is Pi Network a Good Investment?

It is hard to say PI is a good investment, simply because you can’t actually invest in something which one cannot buy, sell, or trade. A cynic might argue that, four years on from the launch of the app, that might never happen. If you want to take a more tolerant view, a lot will depend on market conditions if and when the mainnet is launched. PI has certainly got the world of crypto talking. If it ever does make its way onto the open market, it will be a big event. The problem is, no one knows right now when that might be. 

Will Pi Network go up or down?

This is another question no one knows the precise answer to. Even the regular price prediction sites are making a hypothetical evaluation of a hypothetical price. One thing we can say, though, is that crypto prices can, and do, go down as well as up. Make sure to do your own research. 

Should I invest in PI Network?

Again, at the time of writing (October 2 2023), we can’t say whether you should invest in PI or not, simply because you can’t invest in PI. If and when PI is ever properly released onto the open market, you will need to do your own research before investing, and never invest more money than you can afford to lose. 

FAQs

 

Further reading

LeverFi Price Prediction 2023: What is LeverFi (LEVER)?

Frontier Price Prediction 2023: What is Frontier (FRONT)?

Ben Price Prediction 2023: What is BEN?

 

Disclaimer 

Please note that the contents of this article are not financial or investing advice. The information provided in this article is the author’s opinion only and should not be considered as offering trading or investing recommendations. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. The cryptocurrency market suffers from high volatility and occasional arbitrary movements. Any investor, trader, or regular crypto users should research multiple viewpoints and be familiar with all local regulations before committing to an investment.