PiCoin has been trending for quite a while now. It is a form of cryptocurrency founded by three Stanford students, Vince McPhilip, Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis in 2013. After the launch of its web app was launched in 2014, and the mobile app was released on March 14, 2019, enabling users to earn coins in a process called mining.
A primary school teacher from Kano State simply identified as Audu, was able to sell his coin for N300/Pi, according to TechCabal. This means he made N450,000 from a piece of currency he acquired from a few taps on the app. Audu also revealed that his wife has more Pi than him and has made close to a million naira.
Users using the app are fondly called “Pioneers.”
HOW IT WORKS
Mining is done simply by tapping on a button and its simple process requires no monetary investment, hence, millions of users have accumulated thousands of Pi coins. As of June 2022, Pi network had amassed 35 million users, Sunset Crypto reports.
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However, for eight years, the Pi network remained at the mining or pre-mainnet phase. This implies that users can only gather the coins mine and keep without making any cryptocurrency transaction. The long phase was then cut short in March when the network announced that a user can now trade the coins within the network after filling out the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirement.
According to the network, the mainnet phase is to ensure decentralization and utilities and also to retain the growth and security of the coin which takes it to the mainnet stage.
THE MAINNET STAGE
Bashir (as simply identified), a pioneer, who spoke to Sunset Crypto confirmed that not every pioneer has been verified.
“Verification is by luck. Looks like the core team is using the KYC to screen out people,” Bashir said. “The core team is the team behind the Pi Network. Verification can take between five days to six months after means of identification is submitted.”
But another pioneer, Debo, said his verification took only two weeks.
Debo has moved all his 1,700 Pi into the mainnet. But he said he has locked them for another three years. “I believe PiCoin has the tendency to be almost as valuable as the top crypto in the next three years, so I will wait until it launches fully,” he told TechCabal.
WikkiTimes gathered that the buyers of these Pi coins resell them to Asians, particularly Chinese. As seen on social media, business agreements have been carried out including land trading with Pi as payment. In recent months, some shops in Northern Nigeria have also been accepting Pi coins.
TechCabal further reports that the Pi Network network uses a halving system, the same system bitcoin and other blockchain use to limit the supply of the coin. The network essentially halves the amount of Pi given in rewards after reaching certain milestones.
For instance, users could mine 1.6 Pi when it first started, but as of now, the user count is in the tens of millions; only 0.2 Pi can be mined per hour.
The Mainnet stage of the yet-to-be-officially-traded coin has provoked massive transactions as narrated earlier. On September 28, 2022, a group of Northern youths reportedly held a virtual meeting in a cryptocurrency support Telegram channel, across four states including Kano, Niger, Sokoto, and Katsina to discuss further on how to best trade in the Pi Network.
Zhamani, 27, from Suleja who attended the virtual Pi meeting said that they were able to build a Pi chain mall in Kano where people can shop using their PiCoin.
“Pioneers in China are already selling and buying phones and cars with their Pi,” he said. “We need to also start doing it here.”
The same buzz was seen in a Twitter post that announced the registration of a business called Arewa Pi Mega Mall with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
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While this trend is going on, it is not clear whether the coin would meet expectations when officially valued and its official price announced. But this is not unusual, as almost all coins in the cryptocurrency trade have undergone this fad and in the end, it is a game of profit or loss for its traders.
