$PI @Dear all pioneers, hello everyone. I am Fan Chengdiao, a co-founder of Pi Network. I’ve just seen a long message that someone left in the community. After reading it, my heart still hasn’t been able to calm down for a long time. I used a very direct—indeed, somewhat intense—way to express the disappointment, dissatisfaction, and anger I’ve felt about Pi over the years. I didn’t delete it, and I didn’t dodge it; instead, I read it carefully, word by word.

First, I want to sincerely tell you: thank you. Thank you for being willing to share with us your most real, honest thoughts. Without your candid words, we wouldn’t be able to see the problems, and we wouldn’t be able to improve. Pi has come this far thanks to the participation and oversight of pioneers like you—true pioneers who speak up. You mentioned the saying “Water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn it.” I completely agree. I’ve always kept this line in my heart, and I often remind my team members of it as well. If we lose the pioneers’ trust, Pi will truly be overturned. So today, I’m not going to use any pretty talk to dress things up. I will do my best to tell you—objectively and candidly—our actual situation with Pi and our future direction, thoroughly and completely.

First of all, I want to say I’m sorry. On behalf of Pi’s core team, I want to apologize to you, and also to all the pioneers who have felt disappointed and wronged. Over these years, there really have been many pioneers like you—people who invested a great deal of time and effort, who kept mining every day, completed KYC, ran nodes, and participated in the community—only to see the PIB price remain low for a long time. The pressure in your daily lives kept growing heavier and heavier, and in the end you chose to cut your losses and leave with tears in your eyes. You contributed your real youth and real trust, yet you didn’t receive the rewards you deserved. I, as a co-founder, am responsible for this kind of heartbreak and injustice. We didn’t communicate our progress clearly enough or in a timely enough manner. We didn’t roll out usable features fast enough. We didn’t do a better job protecting the interests of early contributors. These are our shortcomings. I won’t shift the responsibility onto the market, or onto external circumstances. I also won’t say that this is the norm in the blockchain industry. This is our own problem—we must take responsibility, and we are working to correct it.

2. About the accusations that we “harvest chives” and the blame toward the project side

You said that we treat everyone like idiots, play with pioneers, and harvest them as “chives.” You said we regard pioneers as chives to be cut. I understand why you think that way. Over these years, there indeed have been some project teams that harvest chives by exaggerating publicity, manufacturing concepts, and even manipulating prices—so that the project team ends up pocketing huge profits, while users end up with nothing left, having lost everything. When pioneers see cases like this, many direct their anger toward all blockchain projects, including Pi.

But I want to objectively tell you: Pi has never been a project created for the purpose of harvesting chives. We haven’t done private sales. We haven’t pre-mined massive amounts of team tokens. We haven’t dumped at high prices in the early stage. We insist on mobile mining, so that ordinary people can participate using just their phones. We insist on KYC verification to build a real user base. We insist on not making “air coins,” and instead we spent a long time building fundamental infrastructure such as the mainnet, node payments, up studio, and more. These choices have made Pi’s development pace much slower than some “fast” projects, and they have also made some early pioneers feel that the return period is too long and the price is too low. But it is precisely because of these choices that we’ve been able to avoid many projects’ endings where they launch quickly and die quickly. We allow capital to enter, but we have never made capital the center. What we care more about is real users, real contributions, and long-term practical usefulness. This isn’t empty talk—it is our bottom line that we’ve upheld with our actions over the years.

3. About the issue of the price staying low for a long time

You mentioned that it has been kept pressed down at rock bottom—that after mining for years with your hard-earned sweat money, it’s not even enough to get a meal you can eat in full. This is the most painful point for many pioneers. I won’t evade the fact that today’s PIB price is indeed far below many people’s expectations, and that has made pioneers who have persisted for years feel so heartbroken. As a co-founder, I feel deeply ashamed about this. But I also want to state an objective fact: to date, Pi has not opened fully free trading. Although the mainnet is already live, the circulation and pricing of PIB are still in a controlled early phase. We chose this cautious approach precisely to avoid price surges and crashes caused by chaotic trading in the early stage, the spread of rampant speculation, and the manipulation of big players. Many projects open free trading early, and the result is that prices get manipulated; project teams or big players massively sell off, and in the end it harms ordinary users. Pi doesn’t want to take that path.

We hope that when PIB truly enters the free market, it will be built on real users, real usage, and real value—not on hype and bubbles. This is not an excuse; it is our choice. We would rather make everyone wait longer, and we will do our utmost to avoid the outcome of harvesting chives. Of course, I completely understand that for many pioneers, waiting is unbearable. Life pressure won’t pause because of our ideals. We are pushing at full force to roll out practical features, so that PIB truly has use cases and real demand, rather than remaining stuck in the mining stage. Subscription features, smart contracts, launch pad, and other items are being advanced steadily. We hope these efforts can gradually bring real returns to the pioneers who have continued to stay with us.