The Pi Network Hackathon WorkforcePool champion is up for sale, raising concerns among developers.

WorkforcePool – the first champion of the Pi Network Hackathon and the first freelance job market platform on the Pi blockchain – is officially up for sale. This move has highlighted the increasing sustainability challenges that developers in the Pi Network ecosystem are facing.

The announcement on November 4, 2025, has left the Pi Network developer community feeling uneasy, while also raising serious questions about the long-term prospects of this platform for application creators.

Iconic loss for the Pi Network development community

WorkforcePool was once regarded as a symbol of innovation on the Pi Network. With an impressive achievement of winning first place at the Pi Hackathon, this platform has strongly inspired the community to develop decentralized applications.

Built as a freelance job market exchange operating on the Pi platform – similar to “Fiverr version Pi” – WorkforcePool aims to address the practical needs of users through blockchain technology.

However, due to difficulties in operation, the development team was forced to seek new ownership. In the announcement on November 4th, WorkforcePool called for potential investors to submit offers to acquire the project. This is seen as an important turning point, marking the transformation of a project that was once a “pride” of the Pi ecosystem.

This move has caused quite a bit of disappointment and concern within the community. Member WoodyLightyearx noted that the need for WorkforcePool to sell sends a negative message to both current developers and those considering joining the Pi ecosystem.

For many years, WorkforcePool has been a vibrant testament to the ability to build user-oriented applications and sustainable development on the Pi Network. However, the departure of this project indicates the opposite.

The disappointment before the stagnation of the ecosystem

The sale of WorkforcePool reflects deeper issues within the development ecosystem of Pi Network. Major challenges include rising operational costs such as domain fees, server costs, employee salaries, and pressure for user growth. Additionally, the slow progress of mainnet deployment has put many projects in a difficult situation.

Mahidhar_Crypto, an active member of the community, shared about the pressures that developers are facing. In a post on November 4th, he emphasized the financial burden and expressed concern that if the Pi Core Team does not take more decisive action, more dApp projects will be forced to shut down.

“Developers are under immense pressure regarding operating costs due to the ecosystem's progress being delayed for too long. Service costs, domain fees, maintaining personnel, financial burdens, and failures in attracting users are discouraging them. @PiCoreTeam needs to act more decisively; developers are truly losing hope as they wait for clarity on the mainnet and the execution process of the ecosystem,” Mahidhar shared.

These emotions reflect the growing frustration within the Pi Network development community. Although many individuals are passionate, the lack of motivation and progress of the platform is creating an unsustainable environment.

According to the December 2024 update from the Pi Network blog, over 8 million users have transitioned to the mainnet, with expectations that the Open Mainnet will launch in Q1/2025. However, developers believe that this pace is still too slow to ensure stable and sustainable growth.

Concerns about the concentration of power and leadership roles

In addition to the operational difficulties, developers have also criticized Pi Network for its excessively centralized governance model. Pinetworkmember – an influential voice in the community – argues that the founders have not given enough attention to the developers, who play a key role in the future of the project.

He pointed out that the challenging development environment, from lack of open communication to unreasonable fees, poses significant barriers for creators.

The departure of many developers from the project was also warned by him to reduce the demand and applicability of the Pi token. Although the community still maintains a strong connection, the loss of developers will directly threaten the long-term stability of the network.

These comments clearly show the discrepancy between the announcements from the Pi Core Team and the reality that developers are facing.

Pi Network has attempted to address several issues through initiatives such as the Pi 2025 Hackathon, with a total prize pool of up to 160,000 Pi tokens to promote the development of dApps.

However, these measures have not yet fully met expectations for sustainability, operational support, and promoting decentralization.

The sale of WorkforcePool has raised doubts about the future of Pi Network developers. As the first champion of the Hackathon, the departure of this project is symbolic, indicating that even the most prominent projects can face difficulties.

To attract and retain talent, Pi Network needs to address the root causes of systemic issues that cause projects to leave the platform. Whether the Pi Core Team can accelerate the mainnet progress, enhance developer support, or decentralize decision-making remains a big question.

Pi price chart | Source: CoinphotonIn this context, the price of Pi Coin also decreased by 0.92%, reflecting the overall sluggishness of the market. At the time of writing, Pi is trading at 0.22 USD.

Mr. Giáo