Pi KYC: New features and improved infrastructure

Since our last update in July, the Pi Core Team has made significant progress on the KYC process to 1) improve effectiveness, efficiency and safety of the KYC app, 2) expand KYC to an increasing number of Pioneers, and 3) analyze and work on solutions for real Pioneers who have submitted their applications and haven’t received KYC results. While a lot of these improvements, especially work done for (1), cannot be experienced by most Pioneers, the KYC work is not only about scaling and allowing people to pass but also to ensure that overall KYC goals are achieved—to let real Pioneers in different countries and regions pass KYC as accurately and safely as possible while preventing as many fake accounts as possible. As a Core Team priority, KYC is essential to fostering a vibrant Pi ecosystem by providing reliable & safe-proof onboarding to insure the intrinsic quality of the network.

Below, we’re providing more details on what we have worked on since the last KYC update and the next steps to help Pioneers understand and know what to anticipate. 

Recent major progress

• Worked on and deployed better machine automation on obfuscation of ID documents.The improved algorithm will be able to better redact private information on people’s ID documents and reduce exposure to crowd Validators while still allowing them to perform their work (hence increasing the number of passing users). This improvement may not be visible to all Pioneers but it is important for the Pioneers’ KYC process as a whole. 
• Created a system to analyze the work quality and statistics of human Validators. This is again an important backend invisible feature to monitor and evaluate crowd Validator’s performance and hold them accountable, while ensuring the KYC results are as accurate and reliable as possible. 
• Refactored major backend code on validation work selections. This optimization is also invisible to end users but is important to improve the efficiency of Validators work and lead to more accurate KYC results. 
• Improved the efficiency of the KYC app infrastructure. This is important to improve the performance and user experience of the KYC app, e.g. reduce loading time of each screen resulting in more successfully completed applications. 
• Improved the process and analysis of allowing more Pioneers the eligibility to apply. This concerns what many Pioneers care about: increasing the percentage of the network who can apply for KYC. More details on this feature are provided below after this list.
• Created technical processes to analyze the KYC funnel and why some applications are stuck in the funnel, and designing solutions to unblock these applications to reach finality. 
• Fixed an issue that prevented some already-KYC’ed Pioneers from seeing an up-to-date version of their Mainnet Checklist. Pioneers will now be sent directly to the Checklist after successfully passing KYC.
• Deployed several more features to support the overall KYC solution, such as (but not limited to) custom camera features for older devices and OS, user experience additions and improved security measures. 
• Improving our ability to process Pioneers’ name change appeals, which have delayed some Pioneers from successfully passing KYC. This can be a complex process as it requires machine automation (already done, enabling some Pioneers to go through) and enabling human validation (undergoing development and needed to process name appeals that cannot be processed by machines alone).
• Existing measures (such as tentative KYC in special regions and resubmission effective for specific stuck cases) are ongoingly applied, monitored, and improved to increase eligibility to apply and receive faster results for different Pioneers. 

On increasing the number of people eligible for KYC: we are deploying an improvement this week that will increase the percentage of Pioneers who will become eligible to apply for KYC by an additional 18% of the network. An additional 13% of the network will become eligible to apply for KYC if they verify their Pi account either via phone number or Facebook. So make sure your account is verified if you want to apply for KYC!

Next Steps

Curious about some specific KYC goals ahead? We are providing an abbreviated list of things we are working on for the KYC process in the coming several weeks, so that Pioneers in different scenarios know what to anticipate:

• Pioneers who started but did not complete the KYC process will receive post-mining engagement messages in the main app to help and remind them to complete their application.
• For Pioneers who appealed to change their account name and are stuck in the KYC process because their name appeals can’t be resolved by machine automation, KYC human Validators will be able to help them resolve the appeal and unblock them in the KYC process. 
• Unblock 56%of the Pioneers whose applications are “stuck” in the KYC process. All stuck cases currently make up only about 11% of all the completed KYC applications. (This does not apply to Pioneers in regions where the special “Tentative KYC” is practiced, since they follow an independent process) 

We’re also working on other features that may be released early 2023:

• Rejection Appeal feature: Enable rejected Pioneers who don’t currently qualify for resubmissions to appeal their KYC result. This means that, once this feature is deployed, rejected KYC applicants can submit an appeals form to provide additional information for another chance for reconsideration.
• Handwritten ID processing: Enable the KYC process to handle handwritten IDs. Currently, if your country’s ID documents are partially handwritten, your application might be stuck under review, so this feature will help facilitate applicants affected by this issue. 

Parallel Priorities

The current Enclosed Network period of Mainnet allows Pi Network to focus on two priorities: mass KYC and ecosystem utilities-building. Both are essential steps towards our ultimate objective of  building a viable ecosystem to get ready for Open Mainnet.

On KYC, we hear the community, and we thank you for your patience as the Core Team does everything we can to scale KYC as soon as possible. Pi Network’s goals would not be possible without the support of the Pi community at large, and we’d again like to thank Pi KYC Validators for contributing to the overall KYC process. We hope today’s update sheds some light on our efforts and the near future to come.

On utilities-building, the Core Team is also working to foster and support ecosystem app development through community developers, ongoing Hackathons, business partnerships and ourselves. Check out our latest Hackathon winners here.

As the network continues to develop both, the Core Team is excited to be at this stage of the Pi Journey, as we see the fruits of our collective efforts begin to burgeon into something amazing!