Pi Network launches Testnet 1 on Protocol V26

Pi Network users spent May 23 circulating screenshots and posts claiming “Testnet 1” had launched on Protocol V26, with several posts focusing on the apparent jump over V24 and V25. The company’s public website did not show a same-day announcement matching that claim in the material available at publication. Pi Network’s official archive instead shows its latest posted updates in 2026 centered on developer tooling, testnet smart-contract support and earlier protocol upgrades. ### What exactly was reported on May 23? May 23 posts in Pi community channels described “Testnet 1” as running on Protocol V26 and flagged the skipped version numbers as the main surprise. The social post cited in the source brief said the network had “skipped V24 & V25 and jumped straight to V26,” but the X page itself was not readable through the available fetch, so that wording should be treated as coming from the briefing and social circulation rather than a directly viewable official Pi statement. (minepi.com) Pi Network’s own public-facing site did not show a May 23 blog post about a V26 rollout in the announcement archive available through search results. The archive listed May 13, April 17, April 8, March 19 and March 14 posts, with no visible V26 item in that sequence. ### Why are people focused on “V26” rather than just Testnet 1? Protocol numbers matter because Pi Network has been presenting 2026 as a year of staged infrastructure work. (x.com) The company said on March 14 that Pi Day releases included “progress in Node and Protocol Upgrades,” and it used Testnet to introduce products before mainnet release, including Pi Launchpad. April 8 documentation from Pi Network said its new testnet RPC server “builds on the Node and Protocol upgrades announced on Pi Day 2026,” adding that mainnet had been upgraded to Protocol 20 and was “now upgrading to Protocol 21.” That makes a user-reported move to V26 on Testnet 1 a notable jump relative to the latest protocol numbers explicitly referenced in Pi’s own public posts. (minepi.com) ### Does Pi Network already use Testnet for feature rollouts? (minepi.com) Pi Network has repeatedly used Testnet as a proving ground for new tools. The March 14 Pi Day post said the initial Pi Launchpad version was released on Testnet first so users could learn the system before a mainnet version was introduced. April 17 and April 8 posts in the announcement archive also showed the same pattern. Pi Network announced subscription smart-contract capability on Testnet in April and released a Testnet RPC server as infrastructure for developers to query chain data and test smart-contract behavior. (minepi.com) ### Is there an official place to verify the network version? Pi Network’s node portal says users can access Pi Testnet through its node software and use the block explorer to look up activity on the Pi Testnet. (minepi.com) The page points users to the Pi block explorer and to node downloads, which are the clearest official tools for checking whether a reported protocol change is reflected in network data. The company’s announcement archive is the other obvious checkpoint. (minepi.com) As of the available search and page fetches, that archive had not surfaced a May 23 post specifically confirming “Testnet 1 on Protocol V26.” ### So what can be said with confidence right now? May 23 chatter shows Pi community members were treating a V26 Testnet 1 launch as real and were zeroing in on the skipped version numbers. (nodes.minepi.com) Pi Network’s official site, however, more clearly documents the broader setup: Testnet has been the venue for Launchpad, subscription smart contracts and RPC infrastructure, while the latest explicit protocol references on public posts were Protocol 20 and 21. (minepi.com) Pi Network’s next verifiable milestone on this story will likely appear either in its announcement archive or in data exposed through its Testnet block explorer and node tools. Those are the named Pi-controlled places to watch for confirmation of whether Testnet 1 is now running Protocol V26. (minepi.com 1) (minepi.com 2)