Today whenever Pi Network is talked about, most people only discuss Mining, Mainnet, KYC or Exchange Listing. But very few people know that the idea of Pi Network did not come suddenly in 2019. Behind this, there was deep academic research, study of social behavior and experiments based on human collaboration that lasted for almost a decade.
Two user-generated articles recently published on BSCN shed new light on the research background of Pi Network co-founders Dr. Nicholas Kokkalis and Dr. Chengdiao Fan. According to these articles, to understand Pi Network it is not enough to understand Blockchain alone, but it is also important to understand the research that led to the development of this project.
What was the "demo version" of Pi Network?
“Demo version” here does not mean any Mining App, Testnet or Blockchain Prototype.
The author believes that the original "demo" of the Pi Network was years of research conducted at Stanford University, which sought to understand how millions of people could work together, build trust, and collectively create value.
The author found the research profiles of the founders in DBLP (Digital Bibliography & Library Project). DBLP is a trusted academic database in computer science, where records of research papers and scientific publications are maintained.
Research TimelineIf these researches are seen in sequence, the thinking of Pi Network appears to be developing gradually.
2012 AI and Crowdsourcing
The objective of the research in this phase was to find out how to help people complete their tasks more effectively and faster with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Crowdsourcing.
2013 Large Scale Human Communication
Research then moved into how to improve communication between millions of people, while still maintaining personal relationships and trust.
2017 Social Capital
The 2017 research paid special attention to "Social Capital". It means how the trust, cooperation and social relationships that exist between people can be transformed into real economic or social value.
2019 Birth of Pi Network
After these years of research, Pi Network was launched, whose aim was not just to create a new Cryptocurrency, but to create a digital economy with the participation of millions of people.
##Most interesting facts
One thing appears very special in all these researches.
Nowhere was the main topic Bitcoin, Ethereum or Blockchain Technology.
The real question was always
“How do millions of people connect, collaborate and create value together?”
That is, Blockchain was not the beginning, but a technical medium to realize that big vision.
**Research journey of Nicholas Kokkalis**Pi Network co-founder Dr. Nicholas Kokkalis conducted several important researches under the guidance of Professor Michael S. Bernstein at Stanford University.
He published several research papers in the world's most prestigious computer science conferences CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) and CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work).
Publishing research in both these conferences is considered a big achievement for any researcher because only high quality peer-reviewed research is accepted here.
**Honored at CHI 2017**
Nicholas' research, MyriadHub, received the CHI 2017 Best Paper Honorable Mention.
This award is given only to research that experts consider to be innovative, impactful and of high quality.
This achievement shows that the founders of Pi Network are not only blockchain developers but also strong academic researchers.
On what topics was his research based?
Many of Nicholas' researches such as EmailValet and Founder Center focused primarily on these topics
Crowdsourcing
Decision Support Systems
Personal Information Management
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Collaborative Systems
The aim of all this research was to improve the cooperation between technology and humans.
What is its relation to Pi Network? If we look at Pi Network's ecosystem today, many of its features match these researches.
Community First Approach
Trust Circle
Security CircleSocial Verification
Ecosystem based development
Special emphasis on utility
Promote developer community
In all these, human cooperation and community participation play the most important role. This is why many people consider Pi Network not just a Cryptocurrency but also a Social Technology Platform.
Does this determine the success of Pi Network?
No.
It is important to understand that a founder's strong research history does not guarantee the success of a project.
The real success of Pi Network will depend on How much does the ecosystem develop?
How many useful apps do developers create?
How much does Mainnet Adoption increase?
How is Regulatory Compliance?
How fast does Global Utility grow?
If we look at these researches and the journey of Pi Network together, it becomes clear that the idea of Pi Network did not come suddenly. It was driven by years of academic research, understanding of human behavior and a vision to connect people through technology This research history definitely shows that the foundation of Pi Network is not only based on Blockchain, but also on concepts such as human cooperation, social trust, and collective value creation. This aspect tries to distinguish Pi Network from many other crypto projects.