Pi Network, a cryptocurrency mining app for mobile users, may have been implicated in the leak of 17GB worth of personal data, a Vietnamese news agency reported on Monday.
The trove of personal data appears to have been obtained from KYC, or Know Your Customer, checks from users of Pi Network, according to the person who posted it to the hacker hangout, Raidforums, on May 13.
Identity cards of about 10,000 Vietnamese nationals are for sale, along with home addresses, phone numbers and linked email addresses. The seller placed a $9,000 price tag for the data, payable in Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC).
Phien Vo, who runs a group chat channel of Pi Network Vietnam, told VnExpress that Pi Network’s KYC checks are done by a third party, adding that Vietnamese identity cards are the same as certificates. The ID in question is not compatible with the application. However, Vo pointed out that an older version of the app was compatible with these cards at one point.
“To perform KYC verification on Pi Network, Vietnamese people need to use their passports. Only some users who have used previous versions of Pi can do KYC verification with their driver’s license, but so far the system has not accepted Vietnamese identity cards,” said Mr. Vo.
The Cybersecurity Division of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security has since opened an investigation into the matter.
An independent investigation into the perceived value of Pi Network was recently conducted by Cem Dilmegani, tech entrepreneur and founder of AIMultiple. Written a few weeks before the recent data leak, the review concludes that Pi Network bears the mark of a multi-level marketing scheme or an affiliate marketing program.
The Pi app is supposed to require users to log in every day and click a button to get their PI coins. No blockchain consensus algorithm like Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake is used in the app and users can increase the mining rate by referring others. The PI token has not been traded on exchanges and has no dollar value.
The app reportedly sells data for advertising revenue from the moment it’s used. Given that ad space could sell for a higher value with personal user information included, many have speculated that the Pi app is designed solely to obtain personally identifiable information from users. Cointelegraph has reached out to a Pi Network spokesperson for comment. This post will be updated if they respond.
.