Pi Network has officially announced that its Mainnet is upgrading to Protocol 21, with a hard deadline of April 6 for all node operators to complete the update. Any node that fails to upgrade in time will be disconnected from the network.
The Pi Core Team posted the announcement on X, directing node operators to follow the steps outlined in the official upgrade guide. The message was clear: this is not optional, and missing the deadline means losing your connection to the Mainnet entirely.
What the Upgrade Means
Protocol 21 is part of Pi Network’s ongoing series of node upgrades leading toward the much-anticipated v23.0 release scheduled for May 18. The sequential upgrade process is designed to ensure stability across the network, with each version building on the last before a more significant update rolls out.
Node operators play a central role in the Pi ecosystem. They validate transactions, maintain consensus, and keep the network running reliably. Missing a mandatory upgrade is not a minor inconvenience. It means falling out of sync with the rest of the network entirely.
The Community Is Frustrated
While the technical announcement was straightforward, the community reaction underneath it told a different story. Hundreds of Pioneers took the opportunity to voice long-running frustrations, many of them centred on a single issue: KYC.
User Baqeer wrote simply: “Since the launch of Pi, I am mining. Up to now they did not give me a KYC slot.” His comment resonated widely, with many others sharing similar experiences of waiting years for verification that never arrived.
Another user named shared that his KYC had been stuck for three years despite completing every item on his Mainnet checklist except one step that he says is not within his control.
“PCT, please kindly attend to these issues for us,” he wrote.
A Bigger Concern
Beyond the KYC frustration, some users raised a more existential question about the network’s direction. One commenter warned that if node participation continues to decline, the network could eventually consolidate into a small number of nodes, undermining the decentralisation Pi Network was built to achieve.
Pi Network has not publicly responded to the KYC complaints in the replies to the Protocol 21 announcement. For now, node operators have until April 6 to upgrade, while millions of ordinary Pioneers continue waiting for the verification that would allow them to access what they have spent years mining.
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