Pi Network’s mainnet has completed its upgrade to Protocol 21, and the project’s testnet now carries a live Remote Procedure Call server built to support smart contract development. The Pi Core Team confirmed both moves within days of each other, pushing infrastructure forward even as a segment of longtime users grows openly frustrated on X.
The RPC server went live on testnet April 8, 2026. It gives developers a direct line into the Pi blockchain — reading account states, contract data, and balances instantly, without paying gas fees. State-changing transactions, the kind that actually alter blockchain data, still require standard processing fees.
Protocol 21 Lands, Node Operators Put on Notice
According to Pi Core Team on X, the mainnet has now successfully reached Protocol 21. Node operators are expected to update their systems and are being told to watch for instructions on the coming v22 upgrade.
This is the second protocol jump since Pi Day 2026, when the network moved from Protocol 20 to establish base-layer groundwork for smart contracts. The pace is deliberate — protocols 21 through 23 are part of a scheduled rollout running through May 18, 2026, with Protocol 23 expected to bring automated smart contract execution to mainnet.
The Pi Core Team confirmed on X that the RPC server enables node operators and third-party services to also run their own servers — whether for private internal use or made publicly accessible. Developers are already being pointed to testnet endpoints to begin testing:
“Pi Network has released an RPC server, currently available on Testnet, supporting the development, testing, and future deployment of smart contracts within the Pi ecosystem.”
Read-only calls pull blockchain data without modifying anything on-chain. That fee-free access matters for building responsive apps — checking balances, querying contract states, or pulling real-time data for user interfaces. The full blog post from Pi Network, available here, walks through both interaction types in technical detail.
Locked Accounts, 2028 Dates, and Quiet Anger
Not all of the conversation around Pi’s technical progress is positive. Pioneer users who have spent years waiting for token access are pushing back.
X user @abahgar, who says they joined Pi in 2019, posted bluntly about finding their wallet locked until 2028:
“Is this Pi thing not a joke? Everything is set on my own wallet but then you people locked it for me till 2028, I never bargained for that. Been on this project since 2019, that’s 7 years now and nothing yet. It sucks fr”
That’s a seven-year wait with no migrated tokens. The frustration isn’t isolated.
@web3_attorney on X raised a separate but related problem — accounts stuck on “tentative” status for two or more years with zero visibility on when the situation resolves:
“It is unfair to say up till this moment nothing has being done to the tentative issue on some accounts. Some accounts have being on tentative since about 2 years or more and they’ve not even seen their first migrated $Pi tokens. Will you guys do anything about this or should we just forget it?”
No public response from the Pi Core Team to either complaint was posted at the time of writing.
What the RPC Server Actually Does
The infrastructure logic here is straightforward. An RPC server sits between an external application and a blockchain. It handles requests — send me this account’s balance, run this contract query, submit this transaction — and returns responses. Without it, building applications on Pi required far more friction.
On mainnet, this kind of interface is standard on mature chains. Pi is getting there in stages. Testnet performance and reliability will determine when the RPC server rolls to mainnet, the team said in the blog post.
The Protocol 21 upgrade builds directly on that base. Nodes running current versions are the ones keeping the network consistent as these layers go in. Operators still on older versions are behind.
Protocol 23, the one with full smart contract automation, is still ahead. The roadmap points to May 2026. Between now and then, the RPC testnet data feeds directly into whether that rollout happens on time.
For developers, the practical window is now — test contract behavior, integrate services, and build against real-time blockchain data before mainnet goes live. For pioneers waiting on locked wallets and tentative accounts, the timeline looks very different.
