So, when I left you last, I'd downloaded the Pi "mining" app in order to do a full(er) assessment (guess?) on its legitimacy -- and a prediction whether it'll become a shitcoin or a possible contender for the moon. 

I downloaded the app, and registered an account, verifying my identity via Facebook (which is a meh way to verify anything, IMHO, but that's a whole 'nother post).

The app looks nice enough: simple, with only a few functions, some ads at the bottom (which, contrary to the folks bitching in chat*, can be turned off in options, and are just a courtesy to give the devs some kind of income while they work).

*Quick note on chat: for the love of cheese, do not go into chat. Just don't. There are volunteer mods who, bless 'em, try hard to keep peace, but chat is a dumpster fire of people, who, for some reason, managed to download the app and have NO IDEA what it is/people literally trolling for dates (gods help you if anything about you feels female)/asking what the fiat value of Pi is (which is, uh none, so I guess they are really the same as the NO IDEA peeps). Srsly, chat made me...sad. You've been warned. 

You only need to actually engage with the app to tap a button to "mine," once a day (a "cycle"). 

You are immediately given a referral code to invite other folks to the app -- referrals are remunerated by a higher mining rate. 

The mining rate is, literally, the percentage rate at which you accumulate Pi over the course of a cycle. Referring is not the only way to increase your rate, but it's the first means you get.

Once you have mined for 3 consecutive days, you move from "pioneer" to "pioneer and contributor." 

This means you can chat (don't!) or invite people to join your security circle. The security circle is the basis of how Pi plans to monitor and control the security of transactions.

There's a lot on the security circle in the documentation, but TL:DR = that you recruit individuals into your circle that you know are human and that you, well, literally trust. Circles of trusted individuals, all mining, networked together are the key way the system will do its "proof of work/stake," and, essentially, isolate bad actors in the chain.

Your rate increases, of course, in accordance with the size of your security circle.

(Another reason the chat's app is a bad scene: so many people soliciting randos to join their security circle, negating it at its very root. Dumbshits trying to game the system for a better rate, who are actually threatening the system before it even launches. Not surprising, but hella disappointing.)

You aren't required to grow your security circle -- you can mine solo just fine -- and it's actually preferable if you don't actually have any fam or friends with interest in downloading and mining, as far as I understand.

There are other opps, if you're so inclined, to dive deeper into the tech side (and, ostensibly, increase your earning rate) by applying to host a node or to build apps on the eventual-Pi-platform -- which are good signs. 

That, before launch, the team is getting community nodes up and running and soliciting development of apps that will, yanno, USE the currency (which is the way Pi will even get value, right? By having a marketplace that uses it) means the team is still pushing forward -- something a bit, otherwise, unclear, since the timeline for phase 3 (launch!) is vague hand-waving with a lotta "be patient"s tossed in.

So, feeling good about the small promises. I bet I will, at some point, probably be able to use my accumulation of "mined" Pi to trade for some kind of goods and services inside the Pi ecosystem. 

But remember the big claims -- the universally interchangeable, immutable, uncounterfeitable, uh, pie in the sky (Har!) claims? I'm not seeing tangible evidence of that...or, really, even a smooth path from security circles of "trusted" contacts all mining in moral harmony to spend coins on apps developed just for the coin to global dominance of...anything. 

Not saying it can't or won't. Just I wouldn't put that Maserati before the horse. Or cart. 

My who-the-fuck-am-I prediction is Pi will launch, and we'll be able to stuff ourselves silly on non-fungs and cryptokittes-like games, maaaaaaaaaybe even convert some at a fraction penny price. It's unlikely to moon or to hit the shitter, as it stands now.

Worth it? Sure. Why not? At least, click 1x/day, avoid the chats, maybe mess about in the SDK. It costs nothing, except time, and you can limit that to way less than you spent reading me, just now.

Thanks for reading! As always, tips, comments, hints, and suggestions are always appreciated. Happy to hear your thinky thots on Pi (and pie, if that's how you roll).