The first distribution of KYC validator rewards has been completed! This first round began on Pi Day 2026, and all KYC validators with Mainnet wallets have now received their rewards on the Mainnet blockchain.
Over 526 million validations were successfully completed by over one million human validators. Combined with the AI processing in the system, this work resulted in 18 million people’s identities being verified worldwide. The completed work in KYC validation demonstrates the capability, consistency and scale of Pi’s global, distributed human workforce in driving meaningful real-world outcomes, especially in areas that require human judgment and input.
With the first distribution finished, now is a great time to start contributing! Pioneers are encouraged to become a KYC validator, complete accurate validation work, and join Pi’s decentralized workforce to demonstrate the power of distributed human input at a global scale. This is especially relevant for Pioneers as Pi continues to develop human-in-the-loop and KYC as a service processes.
In contributing to KYC validations, Pioneers can benefit from future distributions of KYC validator rewards and other decentralized work opportunities. For instance, the price per validation for this first distribution round was 22 times the current base mining rate.
Pi is currently working to improve the validator performance algorithm for the second distribution round.
Watch this video walkthrough to learn more about the rewards calculation.
Rewards were transferred to validators’ Mainnet Pi Wallets. To receive payments, KYC validators must have a Mainnet Pi Wallet, which can be obtained by completing the Mainnet Checklist and migrating to Mainnet. Or, eligible Pioneers can set up a Mainnet-enabled Wallet directly in the Wallet app (e.g. Fast Track Wallet) and confirm the wallet in the Mainnet Checklist.
Note: The excerpt below was originally part of the Pi Day 2026 announcement. Read on for full details on the rewards calculation, rationale, and insights into the AI implications of Pi’s large distributed workforce.
As a reminder of the original design for the validator rewards calculation when the KYC app was launched years ago, each Pioneer who migrates to the Mainnet pays 1 Pi into the pool of rewards to be distributed to KYC human validators. KYC validators’ work, as long as they contribute to the accuracy of the application processing, regardless of whether the final KYC result of the application is passing or rejection, should be paid by this pool because their work contributed to the network by correctly rejecting unqualified applications. However, those whose KYC applications were rejected do not migrate to the Mainnet, and they are thus unable to pay the 1 Pi.
Hence, the validator rewards pool of Pi is evenly distributed to all qualified work done within that period of time, by dividing the number of Pi in the pool by the total successful validations (Price per Validation). A KYC validator’s rewards then will be a product of this price and their successful validations. So the first round of the rewards is calculated by taking a snapshot of the pool and the total successful tasks at the same time before distribution (by March 5, 2026). Any new Pi entering the pool or new successful validations will be accounted for in the second and future deliveries.
Following the above method, at the snapshot, we have observed 16,568,774 Pi in the Validator Rewards Pool because there were 16,568,774 Pioneers migrated to Mainnet, 526,970,631 successful human validations done by 1,094,680 human validators.
Considering that the first round of validator rewards covers the period when the KYC validator network was still bootstrapping—many of the validations during that time were used to train human validators to become skillful and accurate in performing later validation work—and that this early phase also contributed to the formation of the KYC solution itself including establishment and scale of the human validator workforce, the Pi Foundation decided to sponsor 10 million Pi into the Pool supplementing the distribution of the first round of rewards.
So the final calculation of the Price per Validation in the first round is as follows:
(16,568,774 Pi +10 million Pi) / 526,970,631 successful validations = 0.0504179 Pi per validation
To put it in perspective, this Price per Validation is 21 times the current base mining rate.
In order to have the rewards delivered in this first round, validators must have completed at least 50 validations that reached majority agreement by March 5, 2026. Payment will automatically be transferred to validators’ Mainnet Pi Wallet, so validators should make sure they have set up a Mainnet wallet and confirmed it in the Mainnet Checklist.
The full breakdown of validator rewards and performance status can be found in the validation dashboard in the KYC app.
Each Pioneer’s KYC application has required an average of 20 validations before reaching finality. This is because of the privacy-preserving design of the KYC solution that pieces apart one application to multiple different validation tasks, each of which requires at least two validations from two different validators, including liveness checks, document verification, photo matching, data matching, name checks etc. For some applications that have special requests such as name updates, or require additional checks including multiple liveness checks or resubmissions, the number of validations can increase as well.
Reward rates can also fluctuate across different rounds of rewards distributions in different periods depending on factors such as the number of migrated Pioneers and the total pool of validated reviews during that period. Also, as AI processing in KYC increases and fewer validations will be done for the purpose of training the initial workforce, fewer human validations per application will be necessary. Therefore, fewer validations in aggregation will be dividing the reward pool, which can mathematically increase the Price per Validation in future rounds. Subsequent rounds of rewards may also incorporate additional or different criteria based on the validator’s consistency and accuracy.
Aside from the KYC validator rewards distribution, the data above demonstrates multiple great achievements of the Pi community. Not only have over 16.5 million people KYC’d and migrated to Mainnet through this KYC solution, but also the scale, consistency, and coordination from the large distributed human labor force of the Pi community has shown that it can lead to meaningful real-world results at global scale that require human judgement and input. This not only celebrates the effort of validators in the KYC process, but also shows the potential for Pi’s community to contribute to other types of human-necessary work for the network and future AI economy, such as many human-in-the-loop processes in AI and the human input necessary to train and improve AI capability.
Many AI projects talk about the importance of humans and human input in these systems, or have built platforms to enable human input, but face the big challenge—there are no or few humans actually participating. Pi solved the hard problem first—Pi already has a large, active network and has demonstrated the willingness and capability of contributing, in addition to its native global payment infrastructure through a blockchain capable of handling workforce payments at scale. For example, in just one app, 526,970,631 tasks were accomplished by 1,094,680 people whose compensation is paid in Pi through the Pi blockchain. The KYC validator workforce and accomplishments built the foundation for future human-in-the-loop products, whether on the platform level or through third-party apps to expand the ways humans can contribute to the creation and refinement of AI and future economy. More details on these broader implications will be shared in a later announcement.