Who Is Nicolas Kokkalis? Pi Network Co-Founder

Nicolas Kokkalis is a co-founder of Pi Network, the mobile-first cryptocurrency launched in March 2019, who taught Stanford's CS359B class on decentralized applications in 2018. Pi's About page lists Kokkalis as Head of Technology. Pi's own ledger shows its mainnet went through eight protocol upgrades from version 20 in mid-March 2026 to version 28 in mid-October.

That pace is new. The chain ran protocol version 18 for 1,162 days and version 19 for 403.5 days, while the eight steps after version 20 came one every 26.7 days on average. Those months also saw Pi make its public case for identity tools, from Kokkalis's May panel on proving you're human to a late-July upgrade adding zero-knowledge building blocks.

Nicolas Kokkalis at a Glance

Who Is Nicolas Kokkalis?

Kokkalis is a Stanford-trained computer scientist, and his Pi bio says his work focuses on "combining distributed systems and human computer interaction to bring cryptocurrency to everyday people". Pi Network grew out of that aim, with a coin Pi says is "always free to mine on mobile", a form of mining crypto on a phone.

Pi's mid-October 2026 summit post counts more than 60 million engaged users on the network Kokkalis co-founded.

Pi's blog shows Kokkalis speaking for the project at least twice in the first half of 2026. He answered questions on Pi's strategy with co-founder Chengdiao Fan in a February 2026 video marking the Open Network's first anniversary. In May he joined a panel at Consensus 2026 in Miami.

Nicolas Kokkalis's Career: From Stanford to the Pi Core Team

Pi's founder page for Kokkalis lists a BS and an MS in computer science, then a Stanford PhD and a postdoctoral post in Stanford's Computer Science department.

Stanford's thesis record dates the PhD to 2013 in the Department of Electrical Engineering, with Scott Klemmer and Mendel Rosenblum as primary advisors. The thesis carries the title "Managing personal information with private, accountable crowdsourcing" and describes two crowd-powered tools.

TaskGenies broke a user's tasks into small steps. EmailValet let people share a limited slice of their inbox with online human assistants who pulled tasks out of their email.

Kokkalis was first author of the EmailValet paper, presented at the ACM CSCW conference in February 2013. In its weeklong field study, participants completed twice as many email-based tasks with an assistant's help. The same question of how much personal data a helper needs returns in Kokkalis's 2026 panel remarks on proving you're human.

Pi's bio also credits Kokkalis with an early framework for writing smart contracts on fault-tolerant distributed systems. It adds online social apps that passed 20 million users, though it names neither.

In 2018 Kokkalis taught Stanford CS359B, a course on decentralized applications that Pi calls "Stanford's first decentralized applications class". The next year he and Fan launched Pi Network, whose About page describes a Core Team of more than 35 full-time members.

Who Founded Pi Network?

Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan founded Pi Network, and they're the two founders its About page names. Pi lists Kokkalis as Head of Technology and Fan, a Stanford PhD in Anthropological Sciences, as Head of Product.

Pi says the pair set out to apply what they learned in their Stanford PhDs "in computer and social sciences" to a working network. Pi Network went live on 14 March 2019, Pi Day. The company behind the site is SocialChain Inc., the name in its footer.

Pi's 2026 blog posts name the same Pi Network founder pair. They call Kokkalis and Fan "Pi Founders" in the February anniversary post and again in the May Consensus recap.

Identity checks are central to what the two built. Pi's About page calls its own KYC "a core mechanism" for proving that miners are real people, the network's version of Know Your Customer checks in crypto. Pi's mid-October 2026 summit post counts over 18.1 million fully verified users.

How Often Does Pi Network Upgrade Its Protocol?

Pi Network upgraded its mainnet protocol eight times after version 20 went live in mid-March 2026. It reached version 28 in mid-October, 213.5 days later, an average of one step every 26.7 days. Each Pi Network protocol upgrade moves the chain to a new version number, and Pi's July 2026 post on version 25 told node operators to upgrade "to remain connected to the network".

The gaps between upgrades ran from 14.1 days, between late May and early June, to 47 days from early June to late July.

The chain also matches Pi's own schedule for version 25. That July post set the switch for 22 July, and the chain's first version 25 ledger closed that same day.

Method: each date is the close of the first ledger carrying a new protocol_version on Pi's own Horizon node, whose history starts at ledger 2 in December 2020. At every switch the ledger before carries the version one lower, so no version was skipped. The first version 28 ledger closed five seconds after the last version 27 one. The count rests on that one source.

None of the six posts on Pi's blog from late August to mid-October 2026 announces version 28. That's a blog-only finding, and it leaves out Pi's node page and its X account.

Pi's node listed its core software as stellar-core 28.0.1 in mid-October 2026. That's the engine that also runs the Stellar (XLM) network.

What Is Pi Network Building in 2026?

Identity runs through Pi's 2026 plans. In its February anniversary post, Pi said it would offer the technology of its KYC system "as a service to Web3 and traditional businesses" without sharing any user data.

Kokkalis took the subject to Consensus 2026 in May, on a panel titled "How to Prove You're Human in an AI World (Without Doxing Yourself)". Pi's recap says he "explained that proof of humanity depends on context". In that framing, some systems need to know exactly who a person is, and others only need to know that a human is acting.

Letting people prove one fact about themselves without handing over the rest is the idea behind decentralized identity and claiming the rights to your ID.

Version 25 went live on the chain in late July, about 11 weeks after Kokkalis's panel. Pi's July post says it "introduces BN254 cryptography and Poseidon hashing", two building blocks for apps built on zero-knowledge proofs that confirm a claim without revealing details. Identity verification is one of the uses the post names.

Pi's November 2026 calendar holds what it calls its first Pi Ecosystem Summit, a three-day online event set for 17 to 19 November and announced in mid-October. The summit announcement promises developer tool demos, app showcases and a new hackathon, and it counts more than 420,000 nodes on the network without naming any speakers.

How to Trade Crypto on Phemex

PI has no row in Phemex's spot or perpetual product lists as of October 2026. Phemex's futures cover listed pairs such as BTCUSDT, which settle in USDT.

1. Create a Phemex account and deposit USDT into it.

2. Open the futures page and pick a listed perpetual such as BTCUSDT.

3. Set your leverage and a stop-loss before you place the order.

Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Dr Nicolas Kokkalis?

Nicolas Kokkalis is a Pi Network co-founder with a 2013 Stanford PhD in electrical engineering. Pi lists him as Head of Technology, and in 2018 he taught CS359B, Stanford's course on decentralized applications.

Is Pi Network real?

Pi Network runs a live blockchain, and Pi says its Open Network connected that chain to the outside world on 20 February 2025. By mid-October 2026 the chain had closed more than 29.2 million ledgers on mainnet.

What happened to Pi Network coin?

Pi Network's coin, PI, kept trading in 2026 as its chain stepped up to protocol version 28 by mid-October. CoinMarketCap's mid-October 2026 close for PI was $0.07956, up 0.13% on the previous day's close but 61% under its 1 January 2026 close.

What is Stanford CS359B?

CS359B was the Stanford course on decentralized applications that Kokkalis taught in 2018. Pi's founder page calls it "Stanford's first decentralized applications class", a claim the page makes without citing a Stanford record.

Is Nicolas Kokkalis the Pi Network head of technology?

Pi Network's About page and his own founder page both list him as Head of Technology. The About page lists Chengdiao Fan as Head of Product. Neither page dates those titles, and Pi's 2026 blog posts call both of them "Pi Founders".

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.