Pi Network is further expanding its crypto infrastructure. On September 4, the Core Team launched three tools for developers: local storage, an API providing access to staking data specific to each application, and file or video sharing. The project also consolidated its technical documentation on a single platform to simplify the transition from development to launch of an application.
In brief
- Pi Network adds local storage, a staking API and file sharing.
- Certain functions remain reserved for authorized applications for the moment.
- New documentation now centralizes the developer journey.
Pi Network strengthens its crypto tools for applications
The first new feature concerns local storage. It arrives a few weeks after the migration of Pi Network to the v26 protocol, another technical project carried out this summer. Apps allowed in Pi Browser can now persist certain data directly on a user’s device. Preferences, session state or similar information therefore no longer necessarily need to be stored and served from the developer’s own infrastructure.
Pi Network sees this a way to reduce costs and technical complexity. The data remains on the Pioneer device and is not sent to the Pi crypto servers. Operation must also remain consistent between Android and iOS.
There are, however, several limitations. Only whitelisted apps can use this feature. Available space is limited and old data may be deleted when it becomes full. This is therefore not guaranteed permanent storage.
Second tool: the Staking Data API. It allows a developer to consult the amount of crypto PI actually staked by a user in favor of their application in the Directory Staking Ecosystem. The calculation takes into account the number of PIs committed, but also the duration of the staking. Access to this API also remains reserved, initially, for authorized applications.
File sharing is coming too
The third function is called Pi.shareFile. It allows an application to directly use the phone’s native functions to share files, images or videos. A marketplace can, for example, allow a user to send a photo of a disputed product or a receipt. A game may offer immediate sharing of a capture or video clip.
Pi Network thus continues work already visible with SLICE and the tests carried out around its Launchpad. This time, the change directly affects the tools available to build applications. The developer documentation has also been revised. Until now, resources were scattered between several spaces: SDK documentation, Community Developer Guide and GitHub repository. They are now grouped together on the same official domain.
The new journey covers app registration, sandboxing, SDKs, authentication, crypto payments, Mainnet readiness, and launch. Pi Network even adds AI-based support for authentication and payments integration. It’s less spectacular than a new blockchain or a token launch. For a developer, it’s more concrete.
Pi Network must now transform the tools into use
These new features address a simple problem: having a crypto blockchain is not enough if creating and maintaining applications remains complicated.
Pi Network has been trying for several months to shift some of its focus towards application utility. In June, the project had already strengthened the Ecosystem Directory Staking, a mechanism allowing users to lock PIs to improve the visibility of certain applications in Pi Browser.
The new API takes this mechanism a step further. Applications can now know the effective staking level directly associated with them and potentially build specific functions around their most engaged users.
This strategy to give more utility to ecosystem applications had already been observed during previous Pi Network upgrades. For the moment, however, there is no public data to measure the effect of the three new tools on the number of applications created, their use or the demand for crypto PI. Pi Network has also not specified how many applications will be allowed to access local storage and the Staking Data API during this first phase. This is where the next concrete indicator will be: not the number of functions added, but the number of applications that will actually use them.
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