Pi Network continues to publish frequent updates for its users and developers.

The following article summarizes the most important events surrounding the project, as a lot has happened since our last one.

Verification update

During the weekend, the team announced a major shift in its verification system. Instead of the current phone number-based procedure, which was labeled as unreliable and costly due to international issues like telecom regulations and carrier policies, the project has now transitioned to email-based two-factor authentication (2FA).

This has become the primary verification method for now, but future updates may include biometric or passkey-based options.

The issue created now with this particular transition came from the lack of emails provided by users so far. However, the team is working on ensuring the integrity of the process by verifying how emails are added and used for 2FA. A handful of users had to complete additional verification steps (liveness checks, temporary SMS rechecks, etc), which had briefly paused account migrations.

The team said these issues had been resolved and migrations should work properly.

Pi Network launches ad network integration for Pi Apps

A post by Pi News, an online news source covering Pi Network developments, indicated that the project has begun the integration of its Pi Ad Network across native apps within the Pi Browser. This utility allows advertisers to acquire and use PI tokens to display ads, while enabling developers to monetize user attention.

Some of the highlights include developers generating revenue in PI based on app engagement, as the system is designed to incentivize innovation. Pioneers can also inadvertently benefit from this integration as the usage of PI can result in rising demand for the token, said Pi News.

PiFest becoming a historic event

Another big news story from the project was an online event that saw the registration of 125,000 sellers, including 58,000 active ones. The team noted that 1.8 million Pioneers have used the Map of Pi app to locate businesses, and they had submitted over 45,000 reviews, which is aimed at enhancing trust and transparency.

The event took place between March 14 and 21 and marked the first global commerce initiative powered by the Open Network, which was released to the public over a month ago.

The team said this PiFest event demonstrated PIs viability as a medium for real-world commerce as it aims to empower local economies through decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions using the Pi Mainnet.

But the PI price keeps falling

No matter all the positive developments surrounding the project, the price of the native token continues to struggle. PI has lost nearly 80% of its value compared to its all-time high registered on February 28. A 19% decline on a weekly scale and a 6% drop since yesterday has pushed PI to under the $0.7 support, which is even more concerning considering the overall resurgance in the crypto market.

Still, Pi Networks community remains hopeful for the upcoming price movements. An X user with over 130,000 followers outlined what could reverse PIs trajectory. The advice included hiring more people as the Core Team seems unprepared for the amount of work and responsibility now, decentralizing the native token, and providing more freedom to developers to work on the network as they wish.

There are also some bullish price predictions for PI, with the most optimistic seeing the price heading toward $5 under certain conditions.