The evolution of blockchain is essentially an experiment on "trust" and "value". The core of blockchain is the efficient circulation of decentralized consensus and value. As blockchain technology moves from concept to reality and from the laboratory to life, we have witnessed the rise and fall of countless projects. When the promise of technology encounters real resistance and the ecological vision is trapped by the execution fault, some people choose to wait, some choose to create, and some choose to embrace diverse possibilities with an open attitude.
The development of Vcity (hereinafter referred to as Vcity) has also experienced a series of complex challenges and opportunities. Recently, Vcity released an open letter to the community, reviewing the exploration process from its inception to the present, and elaborated on the development direction and future vision of Vcity, emphasizing that Vcity is focusing on building a self-circulating ecosystem. While promoting the optimization of underlying technologies, it takes "user value first" as the core concept, exploring how to break the traditional framework in the construction of the blockchain ecosystem, achieve sustainable development of the ecosystem and maximize user rights.
Difficulties and breakthroughs in the early stages of entrepreneurship
The Fifth City originated from an important part of the Pi ecosystem - the Voice of Pi. It is reported that Xie Zhang, the founder of the Voice of Pi, launched the project on November 3, 2022, with its headquarters in Vancouver. In the early stages of the project, the Voice of Pi invested a lot of resources and invested more than a dozen servers to run 24 hours a day, but it fell into trouble because the main network of Pi was delayed in going online. At that time, hundreds of thousands of Pi ecosystems chose to shut down their networks and shut down because they could not continue during the long wait, and the few remaining ecosystems that persisted also struggled. However, Xie Zhang did not choose to give up or wait, but to find a way out of the predicament. Finally, on August 25, 2023, the Fifth City was launched as an upgrade and transformation product of the Voice of Pi.
Although the servers of Pai Voice are still running, Fifth City has developed into an independent platform and achieved breakthroughs in technical architecture and ecological design. On February 20, 2025, Fifth City invested heavily to launch a beautifully crafted and magnificent metaverse city - Pai City, to pay tribute to the Pai ecosystem and demonstrate its technical strength and innovation capabilities. This city is seen as a symbol of gratitude for the past, and also marks that Fifth City is gradually finding its own path in exploration.
Over the past six years, Pi has attracted tens of millions of users and thousands of successors through the low threshold of mobile phone mining. The Fifth City has learned from it and grown through reference and innovation. The open letter pointed out that the Fifth City did not choose to leave the Pi ecosystem, but hoped to coexist with it and make progress together on the road of public chain construction.
User value first, the reverse design thinking of the fifth city
In the letter, Fifth City analyzed the industry pain points of public chain construction: the value of the public chain is not just the "ritual" of the main network launch, but whether the main network can carry the real operation of the ecology, whether it can achieve the ultimate balance between ecological development, node incentives, and market circulation, and at the same time achieve the possibility of sustainable development; the real public chain ecology should not stop at the symbolic narrative of "mining", but should build a feasible application scenario, a verifiable economic model, and a sustainable community governance mechanism. These challenges are essentially a difficult problem of balancing technology implementation and user rights.
First, the main network ≠ the value network: if the main network cannot carry smart contracts, cannot realize asset circulation and ecological collaboration, and the infrastructure such as wallet interfaces and smart contracts are not open for a long time, its essence is still a closed experiment; secondly, users ≠ data labor: when contributors cannot obtain their deserved rights through transparent and relatively fair and just rules, the consensus that has been established will eventually collapse; thirdly, ecology ≠ piling up of functions: if most application scenarios only stay at the construction stage and lack a feasible economic model and user value capture mechanism, and lack an economic closed-loop application matrix, they may become a showcase for technology demonstrations.
These industry pain points also reveal the most easily overlooked truth in public chain construction: the inability to deeply integrate technological idealism with the ability to implement it on the ground and the spirit of community co-governance may make it difficult for projects to survive the ever-changing market cycles.
Against this backdrop, City5 has found a unique path to break through adversity. Its team consists of its own blockchain protocol layer developers, financial architects, security engineers, metaverse developers and international art teams. From the beginning, it has adopted "reverse design thinking" - first building a self-circulating ecological scene, then optimizing the underlying technology, and solving the two core issues of sustainability and user value attribution.
Based on this "user value first" approach, the Fifth City's ecological matrix consists of 12 major sectors, which are composed of multiple independent ecosystems, and the same computing power system is used as a link to enable the ecosystems to help each other and complement each other. This collaborative architecture has laid a solid foundation for its underlying architecture and has also nurtured a value system with infinite possibilities.
1. Innovative “Attention Mining”
Different from the traditional mining model, the "attention mining" of the Fifth City redefines the value of user participation. Every attention contributed by users in social, creative, consumption and other scenarios can be quantified through the credit value system and point system, and become a real digital asset through blockchain confirmation.
2. Mainnet is a promise, but not the end
Since the launch of the Fifth City mainnet, the wallet interface and smart contract functions have been fully opened to ensure seamless access for ecosystem developers and users; at the same time, the tokens held by the project party will be strictly unlocked synchronously according to the user release ratio, rejecting "pre-mining" and "hidden harvesting", so that the distribution of benefits will truly return to the community consensus. At the same time, the Fifth City will achieve a 1:1 binding between the test network and the main network through innovative mechanisms, and use a dynamic unlocking algorithm to optimize the token release cycle. Through a series of mechanisms such as the deflationary economic model and the new pledge mechanism, it provides stable support for ecological development and makes the sustainability of the project possible.
But most importantly, unlike traditional single public chain projects, the mainnet is not the ultimate goal of the Fifth City, but only a phased goal. The Fifth City's economic system and ecological matrix will make its potential and explosive power far greater than the mainnet.
3. Unique dual asset mode (dB and Vcity)
dB, as the internal circulation system of the Fifth City, can open up the entire internal circulation of the Fifth City, including the entire NFT system, points system and ecological system. Each link in the internal circulation forms a stable value system in itself; Vcity, as an external circulation system, generates value in transactions and cross-chain liquidity; and the internal and external linkages promote each other, making the appreciation of tokens more possible.
4. Powerful ecological matrix
The 12 major sectors of the Fifth City are not a simple superposition of single functions, but each sector can form a separate economic closed loop, and each sector is independent and mutually empowering. At the same time, the Fifth City's core concepts of "user value first" and "user sovereignty" form a three-dimensional growth flywheel of "technology-scenario-user", which can inspire the community to form a strong cohesion and self-driving force, thereby promoting the formation and stable development of the Fifth City's powerful closed-loop economic system.
Advocate non-zero-sum game, symbiosis and co-construction development philosophy
In addition, in the letter, Fifth City expressed its understanding and respect for Pi ecosystem users, pointing out that the persistence in the six-year wait and the pursuit of the decentralization ideal are worth cherishing. At the same time, it advocates the "non-zero-sum game" thinking and recommends that users spread risks through diversified layouts - they can continue to pay attention to the development of Pi, or explore the potential of Fifth City, just like the coexistence of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the complementarity of Layer1 and Layer2.
The Fifth City pointed out that it did not attempt to replace any project, but to provide users with a more certain possibility and dimension. It promised not to give up Pai Voice and Pai City, to form a symbiotic relationship with the Pai project, and to invite users to participate in the co-construction of the ecosystem and share the growth dividend.
At the end of the open letter, Fifth City emphasized that it would fulfill its promises with actions. Since its birth in 2023, its technology iteration and scene implementation have never stopped, and it has won the trust of 1.6 million users. It said that only sincerity and strength, consensus and efficient circulation of value can win long-term trust. Because the essence of blockchain is an encounter between "trust" and "value".
