There are 1.2 million people who have started to do “mining” with their smartphone: this is the novelty of “Pi”, the new cryptocurrency created to “help ordinary people to capture more economic value, which today goes to banks, giants of technology and other intermediaries”. This is the mission of the digital coin designed by three Stanford graduates.
The core team claims that it cannot guarantee the success of the project as it is a long-term project that depends on the collaboration of its members. “Pi” is a kind of cryptocurrency on the “palm of the hand”, because it allows you to do mining and then earn, not immediately, with your smartphone. How does this happen? “Pi is NOT free money”, is clearly indicated by the team. To do mining you need to download the app. Once you’ve done the mining, you can increase the hourly rate by inviting trusted friends and family to join the community. After 3 days of mining, you can further increase your earnings by creating the safety circle, which contributes to the overall safety of the network.
Members who participate first perform mining at a higher speed than those who follow them. In fact, the extraction rate decreases as more people join the network. At this point, the base rate of mining is halved each time the number of active users increases by a factor of 10. This rate will eventually drop to zero when the network reaches a number of users (e.g., 10 million or 100 million).
At that point, just like Bitcoin, miners will continue to be rewarded through transaction fees and not through the minting of new currency. Before attempting this new unofficial cryptocurrency, it is advisable to ask yourself two questions: “do I have to leave the app open to be able to mine? Does the app drain the battery of my smartphone and get hold of my data?” It is not necessary to leave the app open for the mining, says the Pi team, because the cryptocurrency “does not affect the performance of the phone, does not discharge the battery or use network data. Once you press the ‘lightning’ button, you can even close the app and continue to extract Pi”.
So, how is it possible to extract a cryptocurrency without consuming battery or data? Unlike bitcoin, which consumes more electricity than Denmark, Pi promises to protect his register when members guarantee each other as reliable. This constitutes a network of interconnected “security circles” that determines who can perform transactions, is written in the Faqs. This new approach allows the mining of cryptocurrency on the phone exploiting existing social connections, without financial costs, no battery consumption and a reduced environmental bump on the planet. Nowadays it is not possible to monetize “Pi” because it is still in phase 1 of the project (which began on March 14, 2019), that is the moment of the distribution of digital money.
Only in phase 3 will it be possible to “cash in”, when Pi will switch to a completely decentralized blockchain and with the mobile app able to act as a cryptocurrency wallet that will be connected to members’ current accounts. There are two types of members: the first one says: “In the end it’s just a click a day, why not try it?”. The second type of member says: “In my opinion it is better to try it anyway in the sense that it costs nothing, then if the project goes through, one would end up with a bit of money that at that point to undermine it will be necessary to do it exclusively as for bitcoins, through software that launches algorithms…”.
In both cases there is some hope at the base of being able to turn in life under the economic point of view, without fear of being able to lose something. Today a “Pi” is worth about 0 dollars/euro, as Bitcoin in 2008. Today a Bitcoin is worth 27,814 euros, so why not try it? It is important to remember that to join this community you must necessarily be of legal age.
Stefano Macchia, 5 A Scientifico
