Pi Network Co-Founder Shares Key KYC Updates Pioneers Must Know

One of the project’s co-founders weighed in on perhaps the hottest and most controversial part of Pi Network.

Although it has been around for over half a decade in one form or another, and its Open Network was officially released over a year ago, Pi Network continues to be the center of tons of controversy related to its KYC procedures, as users are quite vocal about their failed migration processes.

Now, though, Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis, one of the project’s co-founders, spoke about some key details, including what could be next for Pi.

Pi’s KYC System

The exec began by explaining that the Pi Network community had “spent years collectively building Pi KYC solution.” They have created a system that allows people from all over the world to interact while keeping their privacy safe, he added. Because Pioneers are located worldwide, the KYC system had to achieve broad geographic coverage and scalability.

In addition to regular identity verification, the solution also integrates sanction screening and compliance checks in a single system. He outlined several reasons why the Core Team had decided to invest “so heavily” into building a robust KYC system:

“From Pi Network’s perspective, it is foundational to the integrity and authenticity of the network. We also wanted to mitigate the need for Pioneers to pay out of pocket in order to verify their identity and thereby ensure accessibility to the entire community.”

He said the team sees KYC as a critical but unsolved problem in Web3. Consequently, they decided to build their system in-house rather than outsource it.

KYC’s Next Stage

Dr. Kokkalis further explained that the next phases of Pi’s KYC solution would be to treat it as a service, not just an internal system. Now, any transfer of funds or information begs the question of the identities of the sides involved in the move.

Being a project that has internally created its own KYC solution, the co-founder said Pi Network will offer their tech and product (not the data itself) as a service to other projects in Web3 or traditional businesses. He explained that Pi’s KYC approach is distinctive in several ways from other similar solutions:

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• Global coverage
• Scalabity
• A hybrid model that combines AI and human verification
• Completed solution

He said the team is also working on adding additional safety steps, such as fingerprint verifications, to ensure no user information is lost or compromised. Lastly, he believes this step will allow the onboarding of non-Pi users to the Pi Network ecosystem.

The user comments below the official post on X were split on the matter. Some were supportive, indicating that if Pi KYC becomes a “true platform capability, that could be a major step toward real-world utility.” Others continue to be dismissive about Pi’s potential, saying, “What you are doing right now is preventing people who have been mining Pi Coin for 6 years from claiming their Pi coins, out of fear that the price might drop even further.”