Critics claim that despite the centralised app reaching 10 million verified accounts, users do not benefit from it.

An release on April 16 stated that over 10 million users of the Pi Network app have completed the Know Your Customer (KYC) process to verify their identities.

The Pi team has stated that upon reaching a number of benchmarks, such as having 15 million people complete KYC, it will introduce a mainnet and make its tokens tradeable.

The fact that 10 million accounts have already undergone verification suggests that 5 million more users will need to finish the process in order to meet the KYC target.

Despite this accomplishment, the business analytics platform AIMultiple asserted that Pi might not benefit users because they are unable to swap their Pi coins at current time with fiat currency on exchanges.”

Pi Network was launched in 2019 as a centralized app. Users produce Pi tokens by pushing a button from within the app each day, and Pi cannot presently be transferred to other users through a wallet.

According to the announcement, 10 million users, called “Pioneers,” have completed identity verification through the app’s native identity verification solution, Pi KYC.

This solution provides “a unique and proprietary approach that combines machine automation and crowdsourced, hyperlocal human verification to accomplish secure, accurate and efficient KYC,” the announcement claimed.

Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis, co-founder and head of technology for Pi, stated that the achievement

“proves that the industry doesn’t need to depend on fiat services to succeed.”

He also claimed that the new KYC system will “allow other Web3 services involving ownerships of assets to achieve their identity verification needs through Pi.”

In December, the team announced plans to launch an “Open Network” or mainnet in 2024, if certain conditions are met. These conditions include that 100 Pi apps must have been developed, in addition to the 15 million users passing KYC.

In addition, the team must have completed all “technology, product, business and legal” work needed to launch the network, and there must not be an “unfavorable external environment” that would hinder the network's success. The team has not yet announced a specific date for mainnet launch.

AIMultiple analyst Cem Dilmegani claimed that Pi Network will probably not benefit users, stating, “[w]e don’t expect anyone except the founders to benefit from PI Network in a significant way.”

That's because it “works like a direct selling or affiliate marketing system, promising future rewards to users for bringing in new users.” Dilmegani claimed that the affiliate marketing system is used to drive traffic to the app, which is, in turn, used to sell advertising for the benefit of the app’s developer.

“Founders are already benefitting from the app,” Dilmegani stated, as they “launched optional video ads at launch to monetize the active user base.”

Dilmegani acknowledged that the Pi team could eventually launch a blockchain mainnet. However, he argued that this was unlikely because it would cause the token to rapidly fall in value as users sold into the market.

“Then, the coin would not be valuable enough for people to keep on logging in to click,” which would potentially eliminate the value of the app to advertisers.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Pi team for comment. In response, a representative acknowledged that Pi has taken an “unconventional and novel” approach to blockchain development, such as providing “an intermediate Enclosed Network period of mainnet" instead of launching an open network immediately.

This novel approach was taken to “enable utilities building on the platform and KYC processing of millions of our community members, to help the community further build a robust network for the benefit of the whole community before we launch the Open Network."

As per the representative, since its launch, Pi has achieved several objectives, such as developing a "novel KYC solution, Node application, Testnet and Mainnet blockchains, Wallet, developer platform, and Pi mining mobile app," among other things.

In support of the decision to delay the opening of an open network, the spokesman said, "We believe anything worthwhile takes time and patience and such components are essential for a healthy launch of the Open Network."

Vietnamese news source vnExpress reported on March 3, 2021, that Pi Network is the 22nd most downloaded iOS app in Vietnam.

A Vietnamese news source claimed in May 2021 that Pi had unintentionally released identifying cards of users to an intruder.

A Pi Network representative clarified, however, that there was no proof of a data leak and that the app processed KYC through a third party rather than storing this information on its servers.