Pi Network co-founders took the Consensus 2026 stage in Miami, six days before Protocol 23 activates on May 11
Pi Network co-founders Dr. Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis both appeared at Consensus 2026 in Miami this week, speaking to over 20,000 attendees including institutional investors and government representatives. Fan addressed the Convergence Stage on May 6, delivering a session titled “Aligning Web3, AI, and Blockchain for Utility,” while Kokkalis joined a May 7 panel called “How to Prove You’re Human in an AI World (Without Doxing Yourself).”
The appearances are precisely timed. As crypto.news reported, Pi Network’s Protocol 23 activates on May 11, four days after the conference closes, introducing full smart contract functionality to the Pi blockchain for the first time. The Consensus stage gives the co-founders maximum public visibility immediately before their most consequential technical upgrade.
Identity and AI as Pi’s central argument
Kokkalis’s panel placed Pi Network’s KYC-verified user base at the centre of one of the most pressing problems in the AI era: how to confirm that a user is human when AI can simulate human behaviour convincingly. Pi Network argues its 18 million verified users and 526 million completed KYC validation tasks give it a structural answer that pure code-based blockchains cannot replicate.
Fan’s session argued that utility, not speculation, must drive the next phase of crypto adoption. Pi Network’s official X account confirmed that Fan stated on stage: “This is the infrastructure Pi has been building since 2019,” directly connecting the network’s years of identity verification work to the AI era’s governance challenge.
With Protocol 23 days away, Consensus 2026 gave Pi Network’s founders a high-profile window to frame what the upgrade delivers before the launch itself defines the story. As crypto.news tracked, PI rose more than 5% on April 29 when both founders were confirmed as speakers, with the token near $0.187 entering conference week.
