The Pi Network Core Team has launched a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) server on its Testnet, marking a significant technical step toward enabling smart contracts. Despite this development, the project’s native token, PI, continues to trade below $0.18, showing minimal price movement even as other altcoins gain. The token also faces potential selling pressure from scheduled unlocks exceeding 10 million coins on some days over the next few weeks.
The Pi Network Core Team continues to roll out new features aimed at enhancing performance and user capabilities amid growing online criticism. Its latest announcement involves a crucial step to simulate and test Smart Contracts on its blockchain. Pi Testnet now has an RPC server. This is described as “a major step toward Smart Contracts being simulated, tested, and deployed.”
This follows a recent protocol upgrade to version 20.2, which is expected to lay the foundations for smart contract capabilities. Once incorporated, this functionality will enable developers to build decentralized applications, with the first expected categories including NFT-related apps, escrow services, and subscription systems. RPC servers act as a bridge, allowing programs to query data and submit new transactions to the network.
Despite these developments, the project’s native token has struggled since being rejected at $0.30 in mid-March. PI is currently up by less than 1% and remains confined below $0.18. The token unlock schedule for the coming weeks is also a concern, as data shows several days with more than 10 million coins set to be released, which could increase selling pressure. The schedule for the rest of April shows the number of new PI to be unlocked dropping to under 5 million on some occasions.
