The Pi Network project, which started with a bold mission to create a user-friendly decentralized cryptocurrency, has grown into one of the largest blockchain communities in the world. However, despite the impressive numbers, the Core Team’s decisions have drawn major criticism from long-term users ("Pioneers") who believe that the project has deviated from its decentralized ideals. Here’s a deep look into the mistakes made by the Pi Core Team.

Keywords: PI network, Mistakes, IOU listing, CEX,

1. Failure to Control Fake IOU Listings on CEXs

When excitement was high and users anticipated the listing of Pi Coin, several centralized exchanges (CEXs) like HTX and XT.com launched IOU contracts. These contracts were not real Pi coins but merely promises to settle trades in the future.

The Core Team failed to take immediate action against these listings, allowing fake prices to circulate — sometimes showing $100+ per Pi. This led to false hype, scams, and a huge loss of trust in Pi’s brand image.

2. Delayed Mainnet Open Launch and Overcontrol

While the Core Team kept the Mainnet firewalled (enclosed), only allowing limited transactions, users had to complete KYC (Know Your Customer) to unlock their balances.

Many pioneers:

  • Couldn't access their Pi due to pending KYC.

  • Had most of their Pi locked under "lock-up rules" for 1–3 years.

Thus, although Pi was "launched", the real supply remained artificially restricted.
This heavy control prevented the development of a true free market for Pi.

3. Selling Pressure Created by Unlocked Pi

Since only a small portion of Pi was unlocked for early KYC-verified users, and most of them wanted to sell quickly, natural selling pressure emerged.

Without strong demand, and with no official DEX for trading, peer-to-peer sales (especially on Telegram and Discord groups) started trading Pi around $1–$5 — far below what the community expected.

4. Ignoring Community’s GCV Proposal

The Global Consensus Value (GCV) — an idea by the Pi community to set a symbolic value of $314,159 per Pi — was never officially supported by the Core Team.

Rather than encouraging pioneers to build liquidity at GCV on a decentralized exchange (DEX) first, the team allowed the narrative to die quietly, frustrating loyal users who believed in Pi’s long-term economic model.

5. Centralization Over Decentralization

Ironically, Pi, which promoted decentralization, allowed centralized behaviors

  • Total control of the Mainnet.

  • Centralized KYC verification bottlenecks.

  • No pioneer-driven liquidity creation.

  • No early smart contract deployment to empower DEX liquidity pools.

The pioneers, who spent years mining and believing in Pi, were not given the decentralized freedom they expected.

6. How Pi Core Team Indirectly Allowed Scammers to Scam

  1. By delaying Open Mainnet➔ They created an environment of uncertainty.
    ➔ Uncertainty always attracts scammers — when people are confused, they get desperate.

  2. By not warning loudly enough about scams➔ Many Pioneers didn’t know how serious it was to never share their recovery phrase.

➔ Scammers used "Get 314 Pi free" type of fake ads to easily hack wallets.

  1. By not acting fast against fake CEX listings (IOUs)
    ➔ People thought "Wow, Pi is already $100+!"
    ➔ Scammers used these fake prices to trick Pioneers into giving up real Pi for nothing.

  2. By controlling the Mainnet but not protecting Pioneers
    ➔ The Core Team had the power to track stolen wallets because of KYC.
    ➔ No clear police action, no strong wallet freezing, no real protection was provided.

🎯 Bottom Line

While the Pi Core Team may not have directly promoted scams,
their slow actions, bad communication, and confusing strategy opened the door wide for scammers to attack the community.

AND because most wallets were KYC-verified, the Pi Core Team had enough information to catch those scammers but didn’t show strong enforcement publicly.