Pi Network officially moved to the Open Network on Thursday, allowing its cryptocurrency Pi Coin to be traded openly. But not much is known about the network's journey and the people behind it.
Who started Pi Network?
The network was started by Nicolas Kokkalis, who is currently serving as its Head of Technology, and Chengidao Fan, currently working as the network's Head of Product, six years ago.
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Kokkalis is a PhD holder from US' Stanford University, where he was the instructor of the university's first decentralised applications class in 2018. He has a BS and MS in Computer Science, according to the network's website.
While working at Stanford as a Postdoctoral Scholar and even after that, Kokkalis created an early framework for writing “smart contracts” on fault tolerant distributed systems and multiple human-focused products including online social applications with over 20 million users and a crowd-powered email assistant.
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{{/usCountry}}Fan, on the other hand, is also a PhD from Stanford in Anthropological Sciences, with expertise in human behavior and human groups studies. She has also researched on human-computer interaction and how we use technology to positively impact human behavior and societies.
“With Pi Network, Chengdiao applies those same knowledge and principles to blockchain and decentralization as a real instrument to empower people with more accessible and frequent opportunities for collaboration and utility-building,” Pi Network said.
What is Pi Coin?
Pi Coin is a cryptocurrency that uses the Web3 ecosystem and allows the registered members of its network to mine coins for free without the energy-intensive methods that other cryptocurrencies use.
As of now, it claims a network of over 60 million members worldwide and was founded in 2019 by Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, both Stanford Ph. Ds.