As I mentioned in Getting Started, my first venture into Crypto was through my existing PayPal account. Two and a half months later my crypto balance had increased, but I hadn't done anything to learn or become more active with it. Then a friend of mine invited me to join him in mining a new digital currency called Pi.

Developed by some wrinkly brains out in Stanford University, Pi is different from most other digital currencies in pretty significant ways that make it a very intriguing experiment to me. You can read the full white paper, but what stood out to me (other than the price of BTC being around 3,500 at time of writing!) were the features aimed at making it a more accessible and sustainable currency. Accessibility: BTC and other digital currencies built on proof of work blockchain have high energy demands which has led to a concentration of this new wealth in the hands of a few. What began as an exciting departure from traditional economics has been subsumed by the existing power dynamics. By relying on the social proof as represented in the trust graph Pi avoids massive energy consumption and distributes itself across the participating population more evenly. 

So how does that work? Like I wrote above, you can get into the nitty gritty of their system of nodes comprising the mainnet using Federated Byzantine Agreements through the Stellar Consensus Protocol in relation to their social proof represented in a trust graph in the white paper. How it looks for individual users is you download the app to your phone and tap the "mine" button each day. You can increase your earning rate by recruiting others to also download the app and sign in each day. As of the writing of this article, Pi has no value. So, by participating, you are volunteering to be part of an experiment.

The criticisms I've read are that not much has happened from the UX perspective in the first two years other than accumulating users, called Pioneers (over 17 million so far). Additionally, the team doesn't have much of a track record beyond their academic credentials. I've also read some vague privacy concerns, but honestly these days this app is the least of my privacy concerns. In the end this experiment may very well be a failure, but the way I see it I've lost a lot more to other speculative ventures than a little space on my phone and the time it has taken to sign up and tap the button each day. If it does succeed however (here is one price prediction), it's exciting to think about being a part of this grass roots movement!

Some practical considerations:

1) There are some safeguards in place to keep users from starting multiple accounts like verifying your phone number. You can start mining without verifying your number, but should Pi gain value you will need to get verified to access the Pi you have mined.

2) You will not be able to change your basic info like username once you sign up. This was super frustrating for one friend of mine! My advice is to give it some thought and choose wisely. 

3) Since the network is built on social proof/trust and we are likely total strangers, by all means, sign up with someone you know if that's an option for you. If not, you can use my referral code minepi.com/UMCmadauk

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about Pi in the comments. And thank you for your generous tips!