In this modern world, the increasing usage of technology in our everyday lives makes us want to search for the better option always. Cryptocurrency is the next natural step in the evolution of money. We have seen Bitcoin’s influence on the world and other smaller coins. They are revolutionizing the world that we live in every day, even if it’s bit by bit. New users who are accepting the new technologies are pushing us towards becoming a better world. Pi is the first digital currency for everyday people, representing a major step forward in the adoption of cryptocurrency globally. Their mission is to ‘ Build a cryptocurrency and smart contracts platform secured and operated by everyday people. ’

I firmly believe the expression ‘ The freer the money the freer the people. ’ The same concept applies here with Pi. They want to make it the freest cryptocurrency in the world and available to every person who owns a smartphone. This is huge news as now we have seen that major cryptos of the world are being made in huge factories with ASIC devices. This limits the availability of the coin and makes it harder for the average user to get into contact with it.

The developers of the coin have created a new algorithm to validate the transactions, called the Stellar Consensus Protocol. (SCP) was architected by David Mazieres a professor of Computer Science at Stanford who also serves as a Chief Scientist at the Stellar Development Foundation. SCP uses a mechanism called Federated Byzantine Agreements to ensure the updates on the Stellar blockchain are accurate and trustworthy.

There are four roles Pi users can play, as Pi miners.

The Pi network hasn’t yet reached Mainnet so some of the features might change when that happens. Right now the second phase has been deployed and it’s open opportunities for developers to add Pi to their programs. I’ve been using every role of the Network and some are subject to change, for example, the Node. At the time of this writing, it doesn't reward you with Pi for the service that you are doing, however, the devs are taking data into account and will make the change when time comes.

Pioneer. A user of the Pi mobile app who is simply confirming that they are not a “robot” on a daily basis. This user validates their presence every time they sign in to the app. They can also open the app to request transactions (e.g. make payment in Pi to another Pioneer which is added in the second phase of)
Contributor. A user of the Pi mobile app who is contributing by providing a list of pioneers he or she knows and trusts. In aggregate, Pi contributors will build a global trust graph.
Ambassador. A user of the Pi mobile app who is introducing other users into the Pi network.
Node. A user who is a pioneer, a contributor using the Pi mobile app, and is also running the Pi node software on their desktop or laptop computer. The Pi node software is the software that runs the core SCP algorithm, taking into account the trust graph information provided by the Contributors.

Proof-Of-Work vs Stellar Consensus Protocol

All bitcoin nodes are competing against each other in solving a cryptographic puzzle. Because the solution is found randomly, essentially the node that finds the solution first, by chance, is elected the leader of the round who produces the next block. This algorithm is called “Proof of work” and results in a lot of energy consumption.

Pi uses the other type of consensus algorithms and is based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) and an algorithm called Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA). Such algorithms don’t have energy waste but they require exchanging many network messages in order for the nodes to come to “consensus” on what the next block should be. Each node can independently determine if a transaction is valid or not, e.g. authority of making the transition and double-spending, based on the cryptographic signature and the transaction history. However, for a network of computers to agree on which transactions to record in a block and the order of these transactions and blocks, they need to message each other and have multiple rounds of voting to come to a consensus.

One criticism the BFT system gets its that it has a centralized point because voting is involved, the set of nodes participating in the voting “Quorum: are determined by the creator of the system in its beginning. Instead of burning energy like in Bitcoin’s proof of work consensus algorithm, SCP nodes secure the shared record by vouching for other nodes in the network as trustworthy. Each node in the network builds a quorum slice, consisting of other nodes in the network that they deem to be trustworthy.

Pi Mining Review

I’ve been using their application for over a month now and I haven’t noticed any drawbacks in my usage of the device. I have continued using my phone as the main place when I do some work or even gaming and I haven’t even noticed a difference in performance, battery drainage, or network speed. You just have to remember to press the button to start mining when the 24 hours period finishes. The application also doesn’t spam you with notifications or anything, literally just sits there and produces PI for you. For the record, I have a SamsungGalaxy J1.

The bigger the team that you acquire the bigger the rewards you get, so if anyone of you is interested in joining me and jump to the future here’s my invitation code: AATGAvijit