Building the Entire Pi Ecosystem

On Thursday, April 13, Pi Network announced the winners of the 2023 Q1 Pi Hackathon, designed to build its mobile mining Web3 ecosystem. 

The event, which spanned from January 9 to March 5, saw over 360 project submissions from more than 6700 participants. The hackathon brought together developers and non-developers to create utilities with the Pi currency in the enclosed mainnet period. Further, Pioneers were authorized to review project submissions based on their use cases and real-world utilities. 

In an exclusive statement with BSC News, Pi Network’s Head of Product, Dr. Chengdiao Fan stated that the Hackathon is a reminder that building the Pi Network ecosystem is a collective effort from the entire Pi community after Pioneers’ dedication in reviewing project submissions.

“The Pi Core team was encouraged by not only the hundreds of submitted projects—including apps for social media, marketplaces, block explorers, games, and more—but also the tens of thousands of Pioneers who helped review each and every submission. This hackathon was a good reminder of what we know to be true: building the Pi ecosystem will take the entire community’s participation,” Dr. Fan said. 

After Pioneers and the core team reviews, Pi Network selected nine Hackathon winning projects. The winners were divided into different categories, including the overall winner, with three runner-up winners, four theme category winners, and one winner of the VC judging round. Members of these projects represent over 11 countries across four continents. 

Polls for Pi, a Web3 polling app that pays Pioneers in Pi for participating in the polls, was selected for the top prize. The app’s simplicity, user-friendly design, and clear utility for the Pi cryptocurrency all contributed to its win, as did its participation in the PiOS program, making its code available for further use by other teams within the Pi ecosystem.  

Three runner-up winners are Coinscro, an escrow system and disputes resolution mechanism to enable secure and trusted P2P bartering of Pi; Piketplace, a project to facilitate transactions of goods for Pi and enable Pioneers to pay each other in Pi for the courier services; and Connect Social, a social media app enabling the formation of subcommunities and Pi tipping for content. 

Four additional teams won theme category awards for social media, games, consumer utility, and open innovation, while one team, ExplorePi, a Pi Mainnet block explorer with interactive graphs, was chosen for winning a separate VC Judging round. Nine other teams with various use cases received honorable mentions in recognition of their contribution to the Pi ecosystem.

For the full list of winners, refer to the Pi Network blog. 

What is Pi Network?

Pi Network is a mobile mining blockchain with an application that lets people earn Pi coins by doing simple tasks on their phones. However, the project remains in its development stage with delivery of an open mainnet still a matter of speculation, with no launch date confirmed. 

With this in mind, the protocol remains in its testnet stage and will apparently go live when many users (Pioneers) complete the mandatory KYC procedure while the core team works on developing its ecosystem.

Pi Network is also reported to be under investigation by authorities in Vietnam and users should exercise a high degree of caution when interacting with the project and ensure they have conducted sufficient research before doing so.