Pi Founders Dr. Chengdiao Fan and Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis spoke at Consensus 2026 Miami, sharing perspectives on how blockchain can support real utility, identity verification, trusted human participation, and sustainable business models in the AI era.
Dr. Fan’s presentation, “Aligning Web3, AI, and Blockchain for Utility,” focused on the central challenge in the broader crypto industry: the frequent misalignment between token design and real product innovation. While tokens have often been used primarily for capital raising or quick exits, Dr. Fan discussed a necessary change of approach to treating tokens as tools that can support user acquisition, product engagement, and long-term utility. One implementation of such a changed approach is Pi Launchpad.
Her talk highlighted how Pi’s blockchain infrastructure, identity verification, and globally engaged network can help support utility-driven products and businesses in the AI era. In particular, she discussed Pi’s approach to ecosystem tokens and launch mechanisms, including how tokens can be designed to help products acquire real users who can engage, provide feedback, and use those tokens within actual product experiences.
Dr. Kokkalis joined the panel, “How to Prove You’re Human in an AI World (Without Doxing Yourself),” which focused on one of the most important challenges emerging in the AI era: how to maintain trust and verify real human participation as AI systems become capable of generating convincing bots, profiles, agents, and interactions at scale.
On the panel, Dr. Kokkalis explained that proof of humanity depends on context. In some cases, systems need to know exactly who a person is. In others, they may only need to know whether an action is being performed by a human or a bot, or whether unique people are behind a set of actions. He also emphasized that privacy-preserving verification should avoid exposing unnecessary personal information and must remain usable for real people.
Dr. Kokkalis noted the importance of distinguishing between AI agents that help and represent real people, and fake activities that pretend to be human.
Together, the two sessions pointed to a shared theme: as AI lowers the barrier to building and interacting online, the harder challenge may be connecting digital systems to real users, trusted participation, and meaningful utility. Pi’s Layer 1 blockchain, identity verification, payments infrastructure, non-custodial wallets, smart contracts, and engaged global community are all part of Pi’s ongoing work to address that challenge.