60-Year-Old Parents "Speculate in Cryptocurrency" - How Many Middle-Class Families Have Been Hollowed Out?

As a child, the most terrifying news you can hear from the elders at home is:

"I have a golden opportunity to make a fortune."

Especially when the elders ask you"Have you heard of Pi coin?", it indicates that everything that follows will go in an uncontrollable direction at high speed. Most young people's initial understanding of Pi Coin comes from scattered keywords relayed by their parents: virtual currency, mobile mining, and the promise of making vast fortunes. These enthusiastic stories of getting rich from their parents are, to most children, a harbinger of disaster. When these fearful children do an online search, they discover that Pi Coin, resembling a pyramid scheme and a scam, has drawn scrutiny from regulators in multiple countries. As early as 2023, the Wuxi Online Public Security Bureau issued an article stating:

Pi coin scam, specifically preying on the elderly.

Pi coin, precisely hunting the elderly? Before understanding what is Pi coin, people always start to understand their parents first. Watching them travel far away to other places and perform a wealth-grabbing dance in front of a stone at the entrance of a village in a manner similar to a ritual to seek wealth;

Or, based on the principle of proximity, move the activity outdoors and to the park, sit on the ground in a handkerchief-dropping formation, and arrange for everyone to present a talent show...

But if you understand a little bit of the details, you will feel that something is not right. You can't help but ask them what they've been up to lately, and they mysteriously reveal: They've been mining Pi coins. Before we understand why middle-aged and elderly people are crazy about Pi coins, we first need to clarify: What exactly is Pi coin? In layman's terms, it's a virtual currency. Pi coin, also known as Pi Network, is also known as "π coin" and "Pie coin." To some extent, you can think of it as a repackaged "middle-aged version of Bitcoin." The biggest difference is that Pi is not yet listed on most major exchanges, making its price extremely volatile. Its future value is influenced by factors such as market sentiment, supply, and demand. Currently, Pi can only be used within the closed ecosystem of the Pi Network and cannot be redeemed for any economic value in the external market. In other words, it cannot be traded like Bitcoin and cannot be converted into RMB or US dollars. Searching for Pi on social media often brings up the following warning: The Pi you purchased is just "virtual currency futures." If the exchange closes, your account will be depleted. If you want to understand the potential risks of Pi Coin more directly, you will see: In a 2023 CCTV report, Pi Coin was questioned by the police as a scam. But the same thing, from the perspective of middle-aged and elderly people, tells a completely different story. In the eyes of middle-aged and elderly people: Pi Coin is the only chance for people to get rich in their twilight years, a new-age treasure trove of wealth lost among the people.

Most middle-aged and elderly people who have joined the Pi coin circle and become Pi friends have one thing in common:

They have plenty of time but nothing to do.

If this continues for a long time, their free time becomes a torture.

By chance, an acquaintance will come to them to act as a guide to wealth and ask them for advice. The sales pitch is roughly as follows:

"You're free anyway, do you want to find something easy to do? 0 investment, just play with your phone and you can make a lot of money."

Initially, these people may be pulled into the "Pi Coin Exchange Group" by old friends, old colleagues or relatives. There are usually one or more senior teachers in the group to infiltrate the group and convey:

"Pi Coin is very valuable now",

"Pi Coin can be directly used in many places abroad",

"1Pi=2000 US dollars" and other similar messages...

When they first joined the group, everyone was skeptical about Pi Coin.

But the first person's statement that Pi coin was valuable might not be convincing, and the second person's statement that Pi coin could now be exchanged for a Mercedes-Benz made people skeptical;

The third Pi friend in the group said that he was going to Macau to pick up the car with Pi coin, which made people want to follow the follow-up.

Good news kept coming in the group, mixed with news reports that were difficult to distinguish between true and false. 100 people in the group were all shouting that Pi coin was valuable and would continue to appreciate in the future.

Some group members who claim to be living overseas will casually share fragments of their lives to tell everyone:

Pi coins have real value and purchasing power across the sea. Even Trump used Pi coins to buy a private jet.

When the day comes that Pi coins can be exchanged in China, everyone in the group will be rich enough to rival a country. Even though this information may sound a bit absurd to you and me, middle-aged and elderly people are notorious for believing all kinds of outrageous information, except their children. They believe that there is a delay in receiving messages on Apple phones because Americans have to read them first; they believe what all the "experts" say, that drinking bottled mineral water can easily lead to infertility. From this perspective, it's not surprising that the same group of people, inspired by the numerous messages in Pi friend groups, firmly believe that using mobile phone mining can make them rich. The idea that "Pi coins can make you rich" has been successfully established. After all, mining doesn't cost money in the early stages; all they need to do every day is tap their phones. All that remains is to do their best and wait for the day when Pi coins can be converted into cash. The longer Pi gets, the more it becomes perceived by middle-aged and elderly people as a potential stock with zero investment and huge profits. Many even prepare to use several mobile phones to mine Pi day and night. It doesn't take long for this atmosphere to impress a newly joined elderly Pi enthusiast and complete the first round of brainwashing. Due to the numerous and complex number of communication groups and clubs, large and small, in various regions, there is still no consensus on the actual value of one Pi coin. According to various unreliable sources, some claim one Pi is worth millions or even tens of millions of dollars, with no upper limit, while others say one Pi can buy a beachfront villa. The sheer volume of information is gradually driving middle-aged and elderly people to learn about Pi and attempt self-verification. Pi enthusiasts who are moderately addicted to the platform have begun wearing reading glasses to attend lectures, take notes, and research financial concepts, understanding what "blockchain," "ecosystem," "transactions," and "empowerment" are. The process of learning how to mine faster, upgrade computing power, and earn more Pi coins is like a second intellectual explosion for the middle-aged and elderly. Over the course of several years of self-study, everyone has completed a second round of self-brainwashing. How is Pi coin draining the elderly? The next step after understanding Pi coin is to start spending it. Before figuring out where your money goes, you must first understand the entire process of mining Pi. This is also the primary basis for accusations of being a pyramid scheme and a scam. Mining on a mobile phone isn't difficult; something that many middle-aged and elderly people can understand isn't inherently that complicated.

As long as you click on a fixed app every day and tap the screen, you will gain the so-called "computing power". The more computing power you have, the faster you mine, and the more Pi coins you can see on the app. The Pi coins obtained through mining will accumulate in the mobile app, and that's it.

Signing in, watching ads, and inviting others are all the main ways to accelerate computing power.

Inviting others to mine will double your computing power. This is why it is not difficult to understand why Pi coins have become so rapidly divided among middle-aged and elderly people.

Mining does require money, but that doesn't mean Pi's offshoot industries don't.

At this point, anyone who has played any puzzle games will understand:

Hashrate is similar to in-game stamina, diamonds, and gold coins.

Although it's free to play, after a while, you'll find yourself reaching predetermined milestones and gradually spending money.

In order to obtain more Pi coins and prepare to accelerate computing power, some middle-aged and elderly Pi friends will buy nodes from "insiders" as accelerators, which can quickly burn through a family's savings and retirement funds.

Moreover, computing power is not the only way to empty retirement funds.

In the corners of small cities where middle-aged and elderly people gather the most, there are a large number of mysterious "Pi Friends" clubs. They usually organize gatherings and grasp most of the Pi friends in the city as "potential customers."

Whenever the software is upgraded, when the loading circle keeps appearing when the software interface is opened, or when there are various problems that middle-aged and elderly people cannot understand, they go to the club to help upgrade and solve some basic problems, and can charge tens to thousands of dollars.

There are even more middle-aged and elderly people who have already fallen into the trap, eager to get rich, and plunged into a world of wealth that they only partially understand. They daily interact with experts in the group who claim to have "achieved financial freedom", but they feel that they know too little.

Self-study is no longer enough, so they begin to seek out successful teachers in their circle of friends and enroll in classes.

The first self-improvement expenditure after retirement is to research the key to wealth. Ten online courses cost tens of thousands of yuan, and even the instructors are middle-aged or elderly. However, to some extent, this actually makes them more convinced of the value of the courses. Pi Coin used to be a niche activity, but it only started to attract widespread attention when news broke that a large number of middle-aged and elderly Pi Coin users were going to Shandong to exchange Pi Coins. After all, the actual value of Pi Coin has always been the "elephant in the room" among middle-aged and elderly Pi Coin users.

Those Pi friends who had long been brainwashed by the "0.2Pi = a Passat" exchange formula would also be distraught when they heard that Pi coins were only worth 5 bowls of jjajangmyeon in South Korea.

So when they heard that there were places in China where they could exchange Pi coins, no one could stop them from heading there.

The local contact said that upon landing, they had to sign a confidentiality agreement before meeting up, and they were not allowed to use their phones to communicate with the outside world during the entire process, because some people would be eyeing this wealth that could control the world. After going through the entire process, the deceived middle-aged and elderly people were ultimately unaware they were being scammed again: saddled with loans or online loans. Thus, they became part of a true crime cycle, returning home to continue mining with their lingering dreams of getting rich. Whether it was a scam involving money or people, a large or small amount, the plot and ending were familiar to us. Despite repeated official warnings about the risks of Pi coin mining, Pi mining has frequently made headlines and been a priority in anti-fraud campaigns.

But nothing can stop the middle-aged and elderly party friends, who always believe in what they are willing to believe.

potential risks, then you will see:

In the 2023 CCTV report, The next step of Pi coin is to start spending money on Pi coin.

Before figuring out where the money is spent, you must first understandthe series of operational procedures for mining Pi.

When the elderly at home who speculate in Pi coins reach the stage of promoting Pi coins to their children, they have basically been poisoned by the five-step snake and have reached the fourth step.

When the children learn that their parents are "playing around with Pi coins", they will also receive a request:

"You should start playing with Pi coins too. I'll take you there."

There are countless personal experiences of children and younger generations on the Internet that prove that Pi coins will not make you rich overnight, but will only make people mentally ill. If they had previously kept Pi mining a secret from their children, not daring to tell their families how much they had spent, they still had a shred of sanity. But when they started to get their children involved in the Pi coin world, they truly had no idea what was going on. They truly believed it all, accepted 100% brainwashing, and were even prepared to "benefit their children."

Even when persuading people around them to mine Pi coins, Pi friends have very similar persuasive words:

"I look down on the hard-earned money I earned after working so hard all year";

"I look down on you for not believing in Pi coins";

The exclusivity, circular reasoning, profit promises, repetitiveness, and even symbolization of Pi coin together are basically a textbook of brainwashing.

Through inviting fission sharing, it also coincides with the pattern of MLM upline developing downline.

The difference is that the first step of a MLM is brainwashing, recruiting people, and most importantly: investing money.

Pi Coins have zero initial investment, purely brainwashing. After Pi members have invested a lot of time and energy, they are then induced to make a series of seemingly "voluntary" financial investments.

The insidiousness of this invisible scam is that even children, after learning that their elderly family members are mining Pi Coins, are prone to the sentiment of "letting them do as they please if they don't have to spend money."

But in principle, Pi Coins is a pyramid scheme that uses the nature of a "boil the old man in warm water" to deceive people.

When it is discovered, it is often too late.

The most difficult point about Pi coin's anti-fraud publicity is also based on this principle.

Pi coin itself, as a "air coin" that cannot be listed on the main network, is not a scam. To put it bluntly, their main way of making money is to attract more people to watch ads and earn some advertising revenue.

It is precisely because of this that Pi coin has become a dream factory that accommodates a large number of scams.

Using a montage of half-truths and half-false lies, after brainwashing step by step, the wallets of Pi friends are emptied.

So to this day, the elderly who have been defrauded of their money still believe that "someone is using the name of Pi coin to do bad things, but this has nothing to do with Pi coin, and I can still make a fortune." Because from the very beginning, various scams have established a self-consistent logic around the idea that "Pi Coin is real, but its value is fake." Anyone who claims Pi Coin is worthless simply lacks understanding. Authorities are pessimistic about Pi Coin because they fear ordinary Pi enthusiasts will share in the wealth created by the capital. Those who dare to go directly to offline exchanges for Pi Coins don't care about the risk of privacy leaks.

A classic, cruel truth about scams is that some people always believe they are inherently smarter than others.

Whenever you delve deeper into a scam, you'll notice some familiar plot points.

In fact, all scams share several common deceptive templates. From the early "original stock" scams to miracle health supplements, promises of overnight wealth or longevity have always been a powerful tool for exploiting the elderly. Every scam targeting the elderly precisely exploits their unfamiliarity with new technologies and their anxiety about wealth in their later years. Scams in the internet age are simply refined upgrades of the same framework.

Going back a few years, the entrepreneurial rhetoric back then was much more obvious than it is now.

In the past, the main slogans for making money through entrepreneurship were "making a fortune easily" and "small investment in the early stage, big rewards in the later stage." Now, it's "mining with your mobile phone on a daily basis, a bit hard but you can get rich."

The former is too rosy, while the latter is relatively closer to reality, giving people a sense of tangibility. What's more, the rumor circulating on the internet that "Pi Coin was created by a Stanford team" is simply a stamp of approval for the potential of Pi Coin for middle-aged and elderly people who believe in meritocracy. In addition, the operation process of Pi Coin emphasizes the "hard work" of diligent learning, frequent exchanges of industry knowledge, and active participation in the community, which is destined to attract the generation that most advocates hard work and wealth. The Pi coin trap never simply exploits greed. Instead, it exploits the anxiety of middle-aged and elderly people, their perceived value in labor, and their fear of missing out on the last train of wealth. The Pi coin trap gradually increases their sunk costs in time, energy, and money. Rescuing the elderly from the Pi circle is an ongoing challenge. Raising awareness, ensuring child supervision, and establishing effective communication are not enough to build a foolproof anti-fraud firewall. After all, for middle-aged and elderly people who are dreaming of getting rich, anyone who tries to dissuade them at this time will become the biggest stumbling block on the road to wealth.

For children, the first lesson to prevent the family from going bankrupt is to first understand what Pi coin is and improve regulatory sensitivity.

When I get home today, I’ll first check if the elders at home have the Pi coin app on their phones.