During a recent guest appearance on the 'Presidio Bitcoin' podcast, Twitter co-founder and current Block CEO Jack Dorsey made a thought-provoking point: **If Bitcoin ultimately becomes merely a value storage tool, rather than being used for payments and circulation, it will deviate from its initial vision and ultimately fail.** This statement directly points to the biggest paradox currently facing the Bitcoin ecosystem: its scarcity and continuously rising price make people more willing to 'hold and wait for appreciation' rather than use it in daily life.
Unlike Bitcoin, Pi Network is trying to practice the vision of a 'peer-to-peer electronic cash system' proposed in the Bitcoin white paper. In recent years, the Pi project has vigorously promoted 'PiFest' offline events, encouraging merchants to accept Pi payments, attempting to bring this cryptocurrency into real consumption scenarios. Directionally, Pi seems to be moving towards the 'payment route' recognized by Jack Dorsey.
However, this path is fraught with challenges, especially in the country where Pi has the most extensive user base—China.
Chinese laws and Pi's 'underground ecosystem'
The Pi Network has a large user base in China, and its early 'mobile mining' mechanism has allowed many users to participate easily. However, according to current Chinese laws, cryptocurrency mining and trading activities are considered illegal financial activities. More importantly, Pi mining often requires the use of VPNs, which falls into a more sensitive gray area under Chinese law.
This creates a very awkward situation: Chinese users wishing to use Pi coins must 'illegally circumvent the wall,' engage in 'illegal mining,' and further move to trading or withdrawing, which constitutes 'illegal trading of cryptocurrency assets.' This overlapping in legal and risk aspects leads mainstream crypto exchanges (such as Binance, OKX, etc.) to be particularly cautious about listing Pi coins.
The hesitation of exchanges is not due to technical reasons, but rather legal risk considerations. Given the current policy environment in China has not relaxed, obtaining formal listing on mainstream exchanges for Pi is almost an 'impossible task.'
Without exchanges, how far can Pi payments go?
The essence of an exchange is the hub of value consensus. Users are willing to use a certain cryptocurrency for payments, provided that the asset can be freely exchanged and monetized in the public market, thus forming actual economic incentives and trust mechanisms. If a coin lacks a public market price, then 'payment' will turn into an 'internal points game,' rather than a genuine financial behavior.
Currently, while Pi has formed a 'consensus value' among some communities or stores, such as 1 Pi redeeming a certain amount of goods or services, it still lacks a public pricing mechanism and market liquidity. Once market fluctuations occur, or users lose confidence, this value anchoring can easily collapse.
In other words, if mainstream exchanges do not list Pi coins for a long time, its offline payment capability will face fundamental limitations. People will not be able to easily convert Pi into fiat currency, and businesses will find it difficult to calculate and accept unstable assets as a means of payment. Ultimately, Pi will fall into a 'closed loop,' losing the breadth and depth of a real payment network.
The gap between Pi's potential and reality
Ideally, Pi is indeed trying to achieve the dream that Bitcoin failed to fulfill—making cryptocurrency a true daily payment tool. However, various practical limitations, especially the legal environment and the absence of exchanges, mean that Pi is still far from this goal.
If Pi cannot gain the three supports of legality, market liquidity, and technical availability globally, its payment system will always remain within small-scale, closed communities, making it difficult to support the dream of a global payment network.
Jack Dorsey's warning serves as a constant alarm for the entire crypto world: **Value storage is not the end point of cryptocurrency; payment and usage are the sources of its vitality.** However, the ideal is beautiful, but reality is cold.
Pi Network may represent an attempt at a 'fresh start,' but if it cannot break through the legal walls and market boundaries, it may still fall into the predicament of 'having coins but no market.' Whether Pi can become Bitcoin's 'ideal successor' will require time, strategy, and a more tolerant global regulatory environment to verify.