Pi Network has described its own rollout at least five times, in five documents, and they do not use the same words. The first phase has four different names depending on which Pi page you open. All four pages are still live.
That is the practical difficulty with Pi's documentation. It is not that the information is hidden. It is that several versions sit online simultaneously, published years apart, and two of them still describe a period that Pi's own later announcements say has concluded.
The underlying structure is stable and short. Three phases, with the third split into two periods. Pi has put a date on the start of each one, and those dates are quotable rather than inferred. What changed between versions is the terminology, the ordering of the final two periods, and whether Pi was prepared to attach a date to the future at all.
What follows takes the phases in the order Pi built them. Each one carries the date Pi states for it. Throughout, what Pi announced is kept separate from what Pi's pages still say in the present tense.
The three phases, and the four names Pi has given the first one
Pi's December 2021 white paper chapter states the structure in one sentence: "There are three main phases to our development: (1) Beta, (2) Testnet, and (3) Mainnet." The same chapter splits the last one into two periods, listing "at first, firewalled Mainnet (i.e., the Enclosed Network)" and then "open Mainnet (i.e., the Open Network)". The original 2019 text is different. Its roadmap chapter names the first phase "Design, Distribution, Trust Graph Bootstrap". Its third phase is one undivided step, described as the point when "Pi can be connected to exchanges and be exchanged for other currencies" (source: Pi's white paper).
So Enclosed and Open are not phases in Pi's first plan. They are subdivisions of its third phase. A reader who learned the phases from a 2019 summary and then met the word "Enclosed" has not missed anything. The vocabulary changed.
Pi's roadmap page keeps a third naming. Its phase board also gives three phases and splits the third into Enclosed and Open. It labels the first one Beta and numbers it Phase I.
A fourth name appears in Pi's own FAQ, whose entry on transfer timelines introduces the sequence with "The network went through three major phases: Bootstrap", then Testnet, then Mainnet (source: Pi's FAQ on transferring Pi).
Four separate labels for a single phase: Design, Distribution, Trust Graph Bootstrap in 2019, Beta from December 2021, Beta Phase I on the roadmap board, Bootstrap in Pi's own FAQ. Neither is inaccurate. They describe an identical period, documented differently at different times, which is worth understanding before you attempt to reconcile two Pi pages and conclude that one of them is dishonest.
The dates Pi has published for each phase
Pi states each of these dates in a document you can open. None is calculated here. If you want to know how long a phase ran, subtract the dates yourself, because a duration written into an article is a figure that no original document can confirm.
| Phase | The date Pi states | The Pi document that states it |
|---|---|---|
| Beta, Phase I | App listed on the major app stores in December 2018; white paper published on March 14, 2019, described as the official launch | White paper and roadmap page |
| Testnet, Phase II | Started on March 14, 2020 | White paper and roadmap page |
| End of the Testnet phase | December 28, 2021 | Pi's own FAQ |
| Mainnet, Phase III, Enclosed period | Began on December 28, 2021 | Enclosed Mainnet Q&A and Open Network plan |
| Mainnet, Phase III, Open period | 8:00am UTC on February 20, 2025 | Launch date announcement |
Two details in that table deserve particular emphasis. The March 14 dates are Pi Day, chosen deliberately, and Pi treats the 2019 white paper's publication rather than the app's 2018 appearance as the launch of the network. And the boundary between Testnet and Mainnet is a single day, December 28, 2021, which is also the day Pi released the white paper chapters that renamed the phases.
The other thing to notice is what the table cannot contain. There is no scheduled date for anything, because Pi never published one for the periods that had not yet started. That is the opposite of a schedule like the halving that arrives on a block count, where the next event is computable from the rules and no announcement is required. Pi's dates exist only in hindsight, announced as each transition happened or shortly before.
What the Enclosed Network period restricted
The Enclosed Network was a live blockchain with a wall around it. Pi's Q&A on the period defines it as meaning "that the Mainnet is live but with a firewall that prevents any unwanted external connectivity". It dates the start: "The Pi Mainnet blockchain was launched on December 28, 2021, in this enclosed state". It lists the restrictions in force: "Pi may not be (1) exchanged for fiat currency, (2) exchanged for other cryptocurrencies, or (3) exchanged for the future promise of fiat or other cryptocurrencies". And it records what the firewall still permitted, saying "The firewall allows full read access to the blockchain for everyone" (source: Pi's Enclosed Mainnet Q&A, published January 6, 2023 and last updated April 17, 2024).
Two consequences followed from that design, and both are commonly misread.
The blockchain was fully operational during this period. Blocks were produced, balances moved between verified wallets, and anyone could read the ledger. Enclosed did not mean unfinished or private. The generic contrast for a machine that writes history versus one that only reads it is Bitcoin nodes versus miners versus wallets.
And the restriction was enforced in two places at once, by policy and by construction. Pi wrote a rule saying Pi could not be traded for other assets, and also built a firewall that stopped external systems from opening accounts. That combination is why Pi described exchange listings during this period as trading something other than Pi.
What the Open Network launch changed
The alteration concerned external connectivity, not the existence of the blockchain. Pi's launch post states that "the firewall that was in place during Enclosed Network has been removed" and announces the transition with "Open Network has launched!" (source: Pi's Open Network launch post, bylined February 19, 2025).
Precision about the date matters here, because Pi's own record carries two. The announcement that set the transition gives a time as well as a day, and Pi's retrospective a year later repeats the same day. The post declaring the network live carries a byline one day earlier. The launch date Pi states twice is February 20, 2025.
Removing the firewall altered what could attach to the blockchain rather than what the blockchain itself did. External systems could open accounts. Pi's node software could point at the Mainnet instead of the Testnet. The consensus design, the mobile app's role, and the identity requirement were untouched by the transition, which is why the Open Network launch answers fewer questions about Pi than people expect it to.
The three conditions that decided the timing
Here is the part of Pi's roadmap that explains all the rest of it. In December 2023, Pi announced its intent to move to the Open Network, and refused to date it. The announcement opens: "We are pleased to announce that we intend to go to the Open Network period of Mainnet in the year of 2024, if the following three conditions are met! There is no specific date set." The first condition is to "Finish any Open Network preparation work in technology, product, business and legal following the consistent strategies of Pi Network". The second is to "Achieve the following goals in network KYC, migration and utility creation", set out as targets for verified users, migrated users and working apps. The third is "The absence of an unfavorable external environment which would hinder the success of Open Network". Asked whether the move was guaranteed for 2024, Pi answered "No, there is no such guarantee" (source: Pi's Open Network plan, published December 27, 2023 and last updated June 26, 2024).
Read that carefully and the roadmap stops being a timeline. It is a gate with three latches, two of which Pi controls and one of which nobody does. A roadmap built that way cannot produce a date until the latches are open, which is exactly why every Pi communication about the Open Network before 2025 declines to give one.
The gate opened in February 2025. The announcement that set the date states "Pi Network will officially transition to the Open Network period of Mainnet at 8:00AM UTC on February 20, 2025". It declares each condition met. It also ties the timing back to the earlier framework, saying "The Open Network date was chosen based on the Open Network Conditions set and shared with the whole community in December 2023" (source: Pi's launch date announcement, published February 11, 2025 and last updated February 14, 2025).
The distance between the intended year and the announced date is the honest measure of what a conditional roadmap does. Pi named a year, missed it, warned in advance that missing it was possible, and then moved when it judged the conditions met rather than when the calendar said so.
Pi's roadmap documents, in the order they appeared
Five documents, and identifying which is which eliminates considerable confusion.
The 2019 white paper came first, carrying the original roadmap chapter. The December 2021 chapters were added as an addendum on December 28, 2021. They renamed the phases and split the third. Pi's white paper page also tells readers how to treat the older text. It warns that the March 2019 document may need updating and directs readers to Pi's latest communications instead. That is a publisher telling you to prefer its newer pages, and it is the right way to read any founding document. The same caution applies to a nine-page paper that started an industry.
Then came a separate product roadmap in two versions. Pi announced it in October 2023: "The Pi Core Team will release a milestone-based roadmap for various Pi Network products and programs that will be deployed in two versions". It scheduled the second under a heading reading "Version 2: Releasing in December" (source: Pi's roadmap announcement, published October 9, 2023 and last updated October 30, 2023).
Version 1 landed in October 2023 and covered history rather than plans. Its announcement also gives the reason Pi withheld dates. It is the clearest statement Pi has made on the subject: "The decision not to set a specific timeline for the Open Mainnet is intentional, allowing for a focus on delivering and building a thoroughly vetted and high-quality ecosystem" (source: Pi's Roadmap V1 announcement, published November 2, 2023). Pi attributes the rest to outside forces it says it cannot control.
Version 2 arrived on December 27, 2023, in the same announcement that set the three conditions. That post is where the V2 roadmap is said to carry the technical and product milestones behind Condition 1. It also describes milestones as sitting in one of three states, in Pi's words History, In Progress or Future Pipeline. If you have hunted for a standalone Roadmap V2 post and found nothing, that is why. It shipped inside the conditions announcement.
After the Open Network launch, the word roadmap changed meaning in Pi's writing. Its April 2025 post plans one workstream rather than a phase. The order is by priority, under headings reading "Completing initial migrations for Pioneers in the queue" and then "Ongoing Periodic Migrations" (source: Pi's migration roadmap, published April 17, 2025). A roadmap in that sense tells you what order work happens in, not when it lands.
Why parts of Pi's own roadmap still read as if it were 2023
This is the section that will save you the most trouble. None of it needs an outside interpretation.
Say a reader searches for Pi's phases and lands on Pi's roadmap page. Near the top sits a disclosure. It explains that the roadmap was built before the Open Network launch. It states that "this roadmap is no longer being updated or maintained". It tells readers the page "should be considered a historical reference only and should not be relied upon for current or future planning, or development decisions". It adds that "Pi Network is evaluating the best means of communicating future developments, features, governance decisions, and community initiatives", followed by "We will update you when a determination has been made." Scroll past it and the phase board still marks Enclosed Network as the current period. The Open Mainnet entry still reads "The Open Network period will begin depending on the maturity of the Enclosed Network ecosystem and the progress of the network's KYC" (source: Pi's roadmap page).
Both passages sit on one page. The notice at the top is newer than the board beneath it.
The pattern repeats on other Pi pages. The Enclosed Mainnet Q&A, bylined January 2023, says the chain continues to be in the enclosed state and calls the Open Mainnet upcoming. Pi's own FAQ entry on the Pi Wallet says external connectivity will be allowed in the following Open Network period. Each was accurate when it was written. Each is now a live page whose tense predates the transition its own publisher dates to February 2025.
Pi's newest primary document points the other way. Its October 2025 filing for admission to trading in the European Union uses the present tense. It describes the project as an open mainnet platform, and names SocialChain, Inc. as the entity overseeing core protocol development, ecosystem infrastructure and compliance operations (source: Pi's EU crypto-asset white paper, Version 1.1, October 2025).
The reading skill is simple, and it transfers to every project. On a roadmap page, the tense is not evidence. Find the byline or the update stamp first. Then find the publisher's most recent dated statement, and let the newer one govern. A page marked current tells you only what was current when someone last edited that sentence.
How this compares with a roadmap kept in code or in specs
Pi is unusual in publishing conditions instead of dates. It is not unusual in having a roadmap that moves.
Ethereum publishes the other model and is candid about its limits. Its roadmap page carries the line "Ethereum's development is community-driven and subject to change". Asked whether the roadmap will change over time, it answers: "The roadmap is the current plan for upgrading Ethereum, covering both near-term and future plans. We expect the roadmap to change as new information and technology become available." The same page lists shipped upgrades with exact dates and a status label. Paris, better known as the Merge, is dated September 15, 2022. Entries further out carry only a year (source: Ethereum's roadmap page).
Set the two designs alongside each other and the tradeoff becomes obvious. Publishing a roadmap its own maintainers expect to revise gives readers named upgrades they can track, at the cost of issuing dates that sometimes slip in public. Pi's approach avoids the slipping dates by not issuing them, at the cost of leaving readers with nothing to track.
Both models generate an identical lesson, which is that a roadmap is a statement of intent with a date on the statement rather than a promise about the future. The Merge is the standard illustration. It was a milestone that landed years after it was first expected, and the delay was visible throughout because the goal had a name. Pi's conditions made its own slippage less visible, because there was no published date to miss.
Ethereum's approach wins on inspectability and verifiability. An upgrade with a published specification can be examined by anyone before it ships. Pi's conditions were measurable, which is more than most projects offer, and they still described counts of users and apps rather than protocol changes a reader could go and read.
What to take away
Three phases, the third split in two, and every start date stated by Pi rather than worked out by anyone else. Beta from 2019, Testnet from March 14, 2020, the Enclosed period of Mainnet from December 28, 2021, and the Open period from February 20, 2025.
Only the last of those four has an outside record. CoinDesk, writing on February 21, 2025, put the go-live on the previous day and described what changed for holders: users who had mined by tapping a screen once a day "were finally able to transfer and sell tokens" (source: CoinDesk, February 21, 2025). For the three earlier dates there is no such corroboration, so they rest on Pi's word alone.
The underlying mechanism matters considerably more than the list. Pi's roadmap ran on conditions rather than a calendar, it said so in advance, and it published the conditions in enough detail to be checked. That is the part of Pi's roadmap practice that stands up, and it explains every unanswered "when" in the project's history.
The trap is the tense. Pi's roadmap page carries its own notice saying it is no longer maintained, and still shows a board marking an earlier period as current. Pi's most recent word on the phases is its February 2026 anniversary post. That post describes the launch in the past tense and features founders Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan discussing current work. It names priorities rather than a fourth phase (source: Pi's first anniversary post, bylined February 20, 2026 and last updated May 21, 2026).
From BloFin's operational view, no PI market exists on the venue, so none of this bears on a trading decision here. It remains valuable as a case study in interpreting project communications, because the discipline of verifying a byline before trusting a tense repays itself on every roadmap you will ever encounter. Companion guides cover the adjacent ground. How Pi Network works explains the architecture the phases were building toward. Pi consensus and Security Circles covers the trust model. Pi nodes explained covers what the desktop software does.
Pi KYC and mainnet migration covers the verification work that Condition 2 measured.
Frequently asked questions
How many phases does Pi Network have?
Three, with the third divided into two periods. Pi's December 2021 white paper chapter names them Beta, Testnet and Mainnet, and splits Mainnet into an Enclosed Network period and an Open Network period. Counting the split as two separate phases gives four, which is why some summaries say four and others say three. Both are describing the same structure. The 2019 white paper used different names for the first phase and did not split the third at all.
When did the Open Network period start?
Pi announced a transition at 8:00am UTC on February 20, 2025. Its first anniversary post a year later repeats that the Open Network launched on February 20, 2025. One wrinkle in Pi's record is worth knowing about. The post announcing the network as live is bylined February 19, 2025, a day before the date the announcement had set. The date Pi gives twice, prospectively and in retrospect, is February 20.
What did the Enclosed Network period actually prevent?
External connectivity. The chain was live and readable, and verified users could send Pi to each other and to apps inside Pi's own ecosystem, but a firewall stopped outside systems from opening accounts on it. Pi also had a written policy prohibiting the exchange of Pi for fiat, for other cryptocurrencies, or for a promise of either. The restriction was enforced by the firewall and by the policy at the same time, which is why Pi said assets trading under its name on exchanges during that period were not Pi.
Does Pi's roadmap say what comes next?
Not in the form of a dated plan. Pi's roadmap page states that it is no longer being updated, and says Pi is evaluating how it will communicate future developments. Since the Open Network launch, Pi has published work plans scoped to single workstreams and ordered by priority rather than by date, and its anniversary post describes areas of focus rather than naming a further phase. Anyone offering you a date for Pi's next phase is not quoting Pi.
Why do two Pi pages describe the phases differently?
Because they were written years apart and Pi renamed things between versions. The first phase appears as Design, Distribution, Trust Graph Bootstrap in the 2019 white paper, as Beta in the December 2021 chapters, as Beta Phase I on the roadmap board, and as Bootstrap in Pi's own FAQ. The Enclosed and Open periods did not exist as named concepts in 2019. Where two Pi pages conflict, the more recent byline is the one to follow, which is what Pi's own white paper page tells readers to do.
Is Pi's roadmap page still accurate?
Pi says it is not, in a notice on the page itself. The disclosure describes the roadmap as a historical reference that should not be relied on for current or future planning. The phase board below that notice was written earlier and still reads in the present and future tense, which is a good reason to check the disclosure before reading the board. Treat the page as a dated record of what Pi planned, and use Pi's more recent announcements for anything else.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated August 2026. Phase structure and dates are checked against Pi's white paper, including its December 2021 chapters, Pi's roadmap page, and Pi's own FAQ. The Enclosed period is checked against Pi's Enclosed Mainnet Q&A of January 6, 2023 as updated April 17, 2024. The conditions and the launch are checked against Pi's Open Network plan of December 27, 2023, its launch date announcement of February 11, 2025, its Open Network launch post of February 19, 2025, and its first anniversary post of February 20, 2026. Roadmap document history is checked against Pi's roadmap announcement of October 9, 2023, its Roadmap V1 announcement of November 2, 2023, and its migration roadmap of April 17, 2025. Remaining facts are checked against Pi's EU crypto-asset white paper of October 2025 and Ethereum's roadmap page. All pages were fetched on August 4, 2026.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies like Pi carry real risks, including price volatility, project execution risk, identity-disclosure tradeoffs, and the chance of losing funds. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or participate in any project. Do your own research, and consider speaking with a licensed professional before making financial decisions. BloFin does not provide investment advice, and BloFin does not list PI.