Pi Network is targeting an October 16 Mainnet upgrade for Protocol 28 while exploring how Open USD, or OUSD, could fit alongside its native PI token. The token’s muted response puts attention on a harder question: can these plans produce services that users and merchants actually adopt?
Key Takeaways
- Pi Network is targeting October 16 for Protocol 28 on Mainnet.
- The upgrade focuses on transaction-data handling and app maintenance.
- Pi has not set an OUSD launch date or published reward rules.
- The next test is whether apps turn the plans into regular payments.
Protocol 28 targets the systems behind Pi apps
Pi Network’s next planned Mainnet upgrade follows the move of its Testnet to Protocol 28. In a September 25 update, the Pi Core Team said the new version improves how the network handles delays involving transaction data, lets developers upgrade groups of smart contracts together and gives applications a safer way to change stored data.
Those changes sit beneath the user-facing part of the ecosystem. A marketplace, game or payment service becomes more difficult to update as its contracts and stored records expand, particularly when a developer must change several connected elements at once. Protocol 28 is intended to reduce that operational burden and help applications evolve without disrupting their existing users.
For PI holders, the immediate effect should be limited. The upgrade does not announce a token swap, a change in mining, or an adjustment to wallet balances. Its value depends on what developers build after the new rules reach Mainnet.
Protocol 28 in plain language: It gives Pi developers more reliable ways to handle delayed data, update connected smart contracts and change application records as their products grow.
OUSD addresses a separate payment problem
That developer work becomes more useful when an application has a reliable way to price goods and settle transactions. Pi Network’s October 8 stablecoin update explains why the project has partnered with Open Standard, the company behind Open USD.
Pi said stablecoins could help in situations where price stability matters, including accounting, settlement and interactions with parties outside the network. It also said PI should remain the primary cryptocurrency across the ecosystem, with stablecoins serving a narrower role where a dollar-based price is more practical.
That can make a difference for a merchant using a Pi application. A seller may prefer to set the price of a product or service in a dollar-linked asset rather than repeatedly changing a PI price after market moves. The same stability can help an app pay contractors, settle a completed order or hold funds during a transaction.
Open Standard says OUSD is already live on its own infrastructure and lists Pi Network among its ecosystem partners. Pi has yet to say when OUSD would be available through Pi Wallet or Pi applications, how users would acquire or redeem it, or whether particular merchants will support it.
Pi still needs to turn plans into products
PI has shown little reaction to the recent announcements. That price move does not prove why traders are cautious, but the available information still leaves several practical steps unresolved. Protocol 28 does not create a payment service by itself, and the OUSD partnership has yet to produce a published wallet flow, supported application list or reward programme.
Those missing details will decide whether the partnership becomes a working payment option. Merchants need clear settlement and conversion routes. Developers need supported tools and compliance guidance. Users need to know where they can hold, spend, withdraw or redeem any stablecoin made available through the ecosystem.
Protocol 28 follows a September developer release that added local storage, app-specific staking data and file-sharing tools. Our earlier coverage of those features explained how they affect Pi’s application layer; the new protocol addresses the network rules underneath it.
What to watch after October 16
The planned Mainnet activation will first show whether the upgrade proceeds smoothly. The more useful evidence will arrive over the following months, when Pi’s technical changes meet its payment ambitions.
- Mainnet execution: Whether node operators complete the upgrade without network disruption.
- Developer adoption: Which applications use Protocol 28’s contract and data-management capabilities.
- Stablecoin design: How Pi plans to provide OUSD access, including wallets, conversion and compliance arrangements.
- Real payment use: Whether merchants and applications begin using the stablecoin for ordinary transactions.
- Rewards disclosure: Whether Pi publishes eligibility, terms and timing for any Pioneer rewards programme.
October 16 will show whether Pi can move Protocol 28 to Mainnet smoothly. The larger payment test comes afterward: whether developers build services that need stable pricing, and whether Pi can introduce OUSD in a way that expands activity while preserving the role it has set aside for PI.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Protocol timelines, partnership terms and stablecoin implementation details may change.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets – crypto first, then everything else.
It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn’t fully understand it – so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can’t properly understand one without the other.
What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it’s happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline – price up, price down, here’s a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn?
He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University – not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That’s probably why he hasn’t stopped.
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