FAQ — Source (bought vs mined): what the ledger sees vs off-chain

Short answer

On-chain: nothing. The Pi Mainnet ledger records native payments as asset_type: "native" with amount, from, to, memo_type, and (for pooled accounts) to_muxed_id. It does not record whether a unit was mined, purchased on an exchange, or received from an app.

Off-chain: everything that matters for accounting/tax. Invoices, trade history, deposit/withdrawal receipts, KYC, timestamps, and the venue’s internal ledgers are separate from the public ledger.

The technical point (matches this repo)

• No origin field. A native payment has no origin, source_type, mined, purchase_id, or equivalent.
• Scalar balance, not units with IDs. When π lands in an account, it merges into a single balance. The per-unit history is not preserved.
• Muxed recipient ≠ origin. to_muxed_id identifies who receives inside a pooled account (e.g. an exchange user), never where the coin came from (mined/bought). See FAQ-MUXED-M-VS-G.md.
• Concrete evidence: Two real exchange accounts and 5 pinned Bitget→OKX transfers show plain native payments, memo_type: "none", with to_muxed_id only. See FAQ-EXCHANGE-ADDRESSES-OBSERVED.md.

What this does NOT imply

• It does not say “treat them the same for tax”. The repo is technical (fungibility + what’s observable on-chain). Tax treatment depends on your jurisdiction, how you acquired the asset, when control was obtained, and the specific transactions you performed.
• It does not erase off-chain records. If you bought on an exchange, the exchange keeps an order/trade history. If you mined, your app/phone logs may exist. Those are different sources of evidence than the public chain.
• It does not prove or disprove taxability. “No origin field on-chain” is a ledger property. Whether mining rewards are taxable at receipt (or only at disposal) is a legal/accounting question, not a technical property of the native asset.

The clean boundary

Question	Where the answer lives
Can the chain tell if this π was mined vs bought?	No. (on-chain) — this repo proves that.
Can your records show how you acquired it?	Yes. (off-chain receipts/trade logs/wallet history).
Does that difference create two different assets?	No. They are the same native, fungible asset (π = π).

Practical takeaway

Keep clean records by acquisition method (purchase receipts, withdrawal tx hashes, mining/migration timestamps). Do that for compliance — it doesn’t contradict fungibility. The chain’s inability to see origin is exactly why you must preserve your own off-chain documentation.

Reproduce (read-only)

node examples/exchange-wallets.mjs   # shows muxed id (who) vs no origin
node examples/provenance-check.mjs  # shows no origin field on a real payment

Context

• docs/SCOPE.md — Claims A (fungibility), B (verifiable), C (not claimed)
• docs/FAQ-TRANSACTION-VS-COIN.md — transaction vs coin
• docs/FAQ-MUXED-M-VS-G.md — muxed = counterparty, not origin
• docs/FAQ-EXCHANGE-ADDRESSES-OBSERVED.md — concrete observed addresses