Pi Network (PI) News Today: April 23

The controversial crypto project has launched numerous features recently, aimed at improving the ecosystem and enhancing the user experience.

The next few weeks are expected to be quite eventful for the entity as the team prepares for another major upgrade and its participation in Consensus 2026. We have yet to see whether these developments can positively impact PI, whose been underperforming lately.

The Latest Updates

The migration to protocol v20.2, which occurred around the symbolic Pi Day (March 14), was considered a huge milestone since it laid the foundation for smart contract capabilities. It also enables developers to build decentralized applications and automate blockchain-based processes.

Earlier in April, the Core Team disclosed that the first smart contract capability is live directly on the project’s Testnet. According to them, this would foster “real, recurring, utility-driven use cases.”

Just recently, Pi Network unveiled PiRC-2, the second Pi Request for Comment, opening the Testnet for subscription smart contract to technical scrutiny and community input. The announcement left Pioneers somewhat divided. Some welcomed the initiative and emphasized its potential benefits, while others argued that more pressing issues (such as the KYC verification) should be addressed before introducing new features.

What’s Next?

The protocol upgrades have been a key focus for the team over the past several months. In February, it rolled out the migration to version 19.6, whereas v19.9 was completed in early March. Later on was the aforementioned upgrade to v20.2, followed by the release of version 21.

Next on the list is the mandatory protocol 22 upgrade, with a deadline of April 27. “This critical update ensures network stability & paves the way for full smart contract functionality, supporting our 18M+ Pioneers,” one community member .