Hello, PublishOx community!  This is my first article, despite the fact that I have been participating in this platform for three years, and that I was approved for my application as a writer some time ago.

My idea of using PublishOx to write articles, and that is the idea that most of those who write articles have, was to write tutorials and / or reviews of certain platforms and applications, explaining their properties, advantages, benefits and ways of use, and in such a way to take advantage always putting an invitation or referral link, to get referrals.   I know that there are also people here who write about many different things, from spiritual and philosophical reflections to political analysis; but let's be honest, most of publishers use social networks, including PublishOx to get some referrals, even if they write well-developed and explained articles.

Well, it turns out that for the moment I am not going to do such a thing, but quite the opposite.  I am going to write and publish a series of articles denouncing the inconsistencies of certain projects and platforms.   And no, I am not talking about scams. A scam is a deliberate act of deceiving people to perform a fraud of some kind, and the scammer gets a direct and very juicy profit from his deplorable act.

But things even more noxious than scams, are gratuitous lies, censorship, arrogance, high-handedness, servility, the whims of the controllers of pseudo-decentralized platforms, and generally unwarranted and pointless malice and even sadism.

All the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph contradict the belief that cryptocurrencies and blockchains are meant to eliminate the need for trust in people, and whose spirit is based on freedom, anonymity, and greater justice.  That's why I call them crypto incoherencies.

And in this article I am going to talk about the inconsistencies of Pi Network.

I am sure that most of the readers know Pi Network, since it is an app and project that is already about 3 years old, and that has been quite promoted in all the media of the cryptocurrency world.  The attraction of Pi Network was, and still is, its ease of use.  It was enough to enter the application and press a button without captchas and without ads to perform a 24-hour virtual "mining" of the Pi coin.

The main argument or message from the Pi development team is that we should be patient, because what Pi was looking for was a solid and slow implementation, and that its development would also be slow but sure.  According to them, the Pi Network has already reached 30 million users, which in principle demonstrates a high level of success in terms of popularity.

Now let's get to the incoherencies:

1. The patience of Saint Job.

The main message of Pi's team was to have patience, and people understood and accepted it.  But do not confuse "patience" with the patience of Saint Job.   Three years to develop a new blockchain????   Are we talking about the new Cardano or the new Ethereum? Three years with an app pressing the little button every day, and still not knowing the certain future of Pi.  Because while there is already a Mainnet and wallets, Pi Network encourages users to block balances in exchange for a higher mining reward, suspicious..; and now they already put ads, so there is an ad revenue of 30 million users, not bad..

And the worst part is that in order to transfer your balance to a Mainnet wallet, you must first pass a KYC process, and this is where more and more incoherencies appear.

2. 15 minutes deadline.

A couple of days ago I went into the Pi app to take a look and press the little button, and I confess that I don't do it every day in a row but only when I remember, which is understandable after three years.

And the first thing I found was an scary message occupying the entire screen, which said that my account had been selected to receive an invitation to go through the KYC process, and that I had 15 minutes to complete the process.  After these 15 minutes had passed without performing the KYC, the invitation could be deleted and transferred to another user.

So, I have been waiting for three years, and they only give me 15 minutes?  And what if at that moment my cell phone is low on battery, or I am on the train or bus, or I have just gone to bed ready to sleep, or I simply do not have my ID card at hand?  I have done many KYCs over the years, and I have never been faced with an unannounced ultimatum.

Nevertheless, I made an effort, looked for my ID card, quickly shaved, preventing the need for a selfie, and started the process; the first step of which was to download another application called Pi Browser, and get my account logged into the new application, which was essential to continue with the KYC.

3. More than three hours of failure.

The KYC consisted of uploading photos of the front and back of the ID card, with the due precautions that we already know, and of which I already have experience: Enough light, no shadows, clear photo, untrimmed edges, landscape image, etc.; then you had to fill out a form with all the data (full name, date of birth, address, gender, nationality, etc.) . And finally, there was the life test consisting of a video in which you had to open your mouth and smile, and finally a selfie.

After the first attempt, the message: "The identification image could not be extracted. Please upload the front side of the ID card again".

Well, maybe it didn't look too good, I tried again with much more care, and I had to repeat the life test; and so on until 15 times or more!!!!

I finally threw in the towel..

It is an incoherency that a platform of a new crypto asks for a KYC, because that goes against the spirit of freedom and anonymity of cryptocurrencies; but if you are going to do it make sure it works correctly for EVERYONE, and even more if you give a mandatory 15 minutes deadline.

And no, it was not a network problem. Nor was it a camera or device problem.  In fact, I tried it with three different cell phones: Mine, my wife's and my daughter's; a Samsung, a fairly new Redmi and a brand new Realme.

4. Bootlicker chat.

Tired after three hours of trying, I logged into the Pi Network app, and went to the Spanish chat, which is my native language. I wanted to search and find more information about KYC and if there were any problems. I found several messages from users who had had similar problems to mine and other types of problems, but had not received more answers than the typical bootlicker's bullshit, like "Well, I had no problem" or "Surely you uploaded the images wrong" or "It must be a problem with your device".

Then I went to a FAQ section and found a section about KYC.   It was nothing more than extensive verbiage trying to justify KYC without providing any further help.   There was a link to a YouTube video, where it explained how to perform KYC; a video where everything was happiness and simplicity, basically a wonderful world.

I then went back to the Spanish chat, and stated my complaint explaining that I had been trying to perform the KYC for more than three hours without success, with countless attempts. And asking what I could do.   And immediately the bootlicker trolls appeared like flies to excrement.  The bootlicker trolls always assume that you are clumsy and stupid, and that it is always your fault;  and they provoke and provoke, in the most irritating and creative ways imaginable.

Obviously I was answering one by one, to all the smarty pants bootlickers.  All I was saying was that there were problems with KYC for some users, and that the Core Team should be aware of these problems and look for a solution.   Simply ignoring the problem was a policy of every man for himself and random discrimination.

It didn't take long for a mod to delete my last message, and mute me in the chat, without any warning, and after muting me he wrote:

" Muted for flood and for being a nuisance. And also for troll".

Is it possible to be more cowardly and arrogant?  And the bootlickers, of course, they don't flood and they are not trolls.

What a pity that a project like Pi Network, and we are talking about a blockchain and a crypto that are supposed to be friendly and innovative, are infected by trolls bootlickers and cowardly and arrogant moderators.

5. Not everything was happiness.

The next day and with a clearer head, I started looking for Pi Network support pages or sites, and after a while I found the following page that you can see in the image.

As you can see, the Pi support team knows very well the various problems that many users are going through with the KYC application, otherwise there would not be all those options of issues in the form.   So it was not all happiness, as they want to claim in the chat and YouTube videos.

And if the support team has already listed a significant number of different issues, why don't they stop the KYC process, until they have reviewed and improved the application?  And why don't they be honest, and warn users that they may face bugs or different errors in the process?

The incompetent, as well as overbearing chat moderators, might as well provide that support link when someone claims to have had problems with KYC.   Where is the no need to trust people that has been so much proclaimed with blockchains? 

If in the end it is people, and not the most suitable ones, who are usually at the head of the platforms?  What good is decentralization if in the end we live in a society of sheep and bootlickers?  Decentralization goes up in smoke, when you have to face those who are really in control.

6. The Core Team. 

In the three years that I have been in Pi Network, the phrase I have read everywhere is "The Core Team".  To the point that one comes to think that the Core Team is a great team of developers, as well as the Ethereum or Cardano team.  And yesterday I have discovered that the so famous and many times named Core Team is composed by.... TWO PEOPLE!!!!   And you can see it in the screenshots below.

I don't want to say that those two people are not capable, but I tend to suspect that two people is not enough for a project of the size of Pi Network, no matter how genius and productive they are.   And now I'm beginning to understand why perhaps things have been going so slowly..

The incoherency is clear.   A project promoted with great fanfare, and which has already attracted more than 30 million people; and it is run by just two university graduates? Long live decentralization and blockchain!

7. Verifiers.

The process designed by the Pi Network team for mass KYC determines that those who have passed the KYC can become "verifiers" of other KYCs in their respective countries. The only requirement is to have passed KYC, and they will be rewarded for their work.

Sorry, but is this normal and correct?  I don't think so.  Whatever they say, a KYC should be in professional hands, and not in the hands of anyone and everyone.  The world is full of people who are ignorant, prejudiced, racist, gross, clumsy, subjective, and in some countries more than in others, even if it is politically incorrect to say so.  I am from Bolivia and I live in Bolivia, and I have lived in several different countries, and I can say with full knowledge of the facts, that I trust neither my countrymen nor my neighbors.

Once again, where is the supposed elimination of trust in people that is the main argument of blockchains?

8. If you live in the wrong country you are out.

“KYC results will depend on identity verification, your name matching with your PI account, SCREENING AGAINST GOVERNMENT AML AND ANTI-TERRORISM SANCTION LIST, and if the account has scripting or policy-violation history.

I only wonder three things:

- How can a PI user account be practicing money laundering, if the PI currency has no exchange value so far, nor can it be cashed out or withdrawn?

- A decentralized, blockchain and cryptocurrency platform following US government guidelines?

- What would Satoshi Nakamoto (if he ever existed) think about this Pi Network regulation?

Well, friends, if you have reached the end of this reading, I apologize for the hard time I may have given you, and I thank you for your patience and interest.

But I warn you that this will not be the last nor the only article about crypto incoherencies.  See you soon!