Yesterday, December 21st, many users panicked when the Pi Network application suddenly disappeared from Google’s app store. This raises suspicions of the fraudulent status of this cryptocurrency mining project.

* The Pi Network app will disappear from the Play Store

After almost 3 years, Pi is still 0. worth

The application that supports “mining” the Pi network suddenly disappeared from the Google Play Store (CH Play) on December 21, causing much controversy among members of the digital currency community. If you access CH Play and search for Pi Network, it will not find that application, but rather the Pi Browser application. In the Google Play search the words “Unfortunately the requested URL could not be found on this server”. In the meantime, the Pi Network application is still available in the App Store of the iOS operating system.

Many conspiracy theories posed for Pi Network’s “color flight” in the CH Play application. There is no exception to the argument that the development team is preparing to put operations on the official network. The Pi Network project has been controversial for the past 2 years when there was a fever on all fronts of Facebook, Zalo, TikTok, YouTube …

Pi Network is a cryptocurrency only for mobile devices, similar to a previously launched Electroneum (ETN) project. The difference from Pi Network lies in the ability to mine Pi, but it does not consume device resources like other free coin mining applications and does not have to make investments, it is “rumored” for a certain period of time. It will even replace Bitcoin. There is even an article that specifically lists how each person can shed 6 pi / day, which is 2,160 pi in one year. If Pi hits the ground for $ 10, the miner will be 21,600. plug in U.S. dollar. In fact, as of the beginning of this year, every phone was only 0.12 pi / hour, or about 2.88 pi / day. To mine Pi, users need to download the Pi Network application on their phone and enter personal information, enter another member’s invitation code to “increase the security layer and speed of pi mining”.

The most important thing is that after creating a Pi account, users have to authenticate their personal identity including passport photo, telephone number, email, and do without mobile mining. Lately, many people have returned to mining Pi after rumors of an exchange value of this virtual currency emerged as it is close to being officially announced. Hence, yesterday’s disappearance left many Pi supporters in panic and disappointment. Before disappearing, the Pi Network application climbed from outside the top 100 to 7th place on the Google Play Store in terms of downloads and 13th place on the Vietnam App Store in November. Similarweb statistics in November showed that the Pi Network’s website access rate from IP addresses from Vietnam increased by 58%.

The Pi Network application in the Google Play Store is no longer available. TX

Cryptocurrency-related scams have skyrocketed

Once the pi mining community flourished in Vietnam earlier this year, many experts in blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, etc., warned of the seedy problems with this system. It is not a transparent system (unlike Bitcoin which is an open system). The Pi-Coin actually arises from the attendance and recommendation bonuses of the members and the granting or allocation of the project owner. Since it is a closed system, nobody knows how it is created and possibly how many pi to be given …

According to Dr. Le Dat Chi, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Finance at the University of Economics and Business Ho Chi Minh City, The personal information of the tens of millions of people who have joined and installed the Pi Network application will be an endless “resource” for project staff. Perhaps they will eventually exploit this resource, but the participants in the Pi network themselves do not know how their personal information has been used and can even be involved in scams.

“All cryptocurrency exchanges in Vietnam are illegal. Participants must have a basic understanding of investing. For example, a project based on blockchain technology can develop in the country due to the possibility of trust. But for foreign projects and then to introduce high profit promises or to do nothing and still have money, it is too absurd and we cannot check whether it is real or fake who is the creator … Similar to other international currencies and securities Investment platforms most of which are only visited by Vietnamese and receive money through personal accounts so it is easy for investors to deposit money but difficult to withdraw. When he realized he was trapped, he lost all of his money. Therefore, everyone must be careful themselves, carefully research before any investment activity when pouring capital, “added Dr. Le Dat Chi added.

Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem, director of Nghiem & Chinh Partnership law firm, shared the same opinion, saying the state bank has repeatedly confirmed that it does not accept or recognize digital currencies in Vietnam. Therefore, any transaction, purchase or sale in connection with cryptocurrencies, including in cyberspace, is considered illegal. Therefore, investors must bear all of the risks themselves when participating. Once a fraud is discovered, even if reported, the police will only deal with fraudulent persons or organizations and will not reclaim the money. Therefore, this lawyer emphasized, everyone must control and curb greed, be very vigilant with offers to participate in highly profitable investment projects of up to 30-40% / month of money every day …