Have you heard? Wednesday, May 22, is Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Bitcoin Pizza Day is celebrated by online proponents of the most widely owned cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as a way of marking what may have been the first Bitcoin-related transaction that took place online. The question then becomes: Is there a way your pizzeria can cash in on this eccentric “holiday”?
First, the backstory: On May 22, 2010, a Florida man named Laszlo Hanyecz paid an online stranger—a British man, Jeremy Sturdivant—10,000 Bitcoin in exchange for two Papa Johns’ delivery pizzas. At the time, 10,000 Bitcoin was worth about 41 American dollars. Today, that much Bitcoin would be valued at around $670 million.
Related: California Man Sells Bravo Pizza Restaurant for Bitcoin
While this may sound like a tale of incredible misfortune that is now celebrated by online trolls—and to be sure, it is sometimes just that—it is also recognized in some circles as one of the things that helped pave Bitcoin’s path to legitimacy. In 2010, the coin was very much in its infancy and was largely scoffed at by financial experts. These days, banks and hedge funds are said to own hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.
The holiday has enough of a niche following by now that it might be worth running a promotion at your pizzeria in honor of Bitcoin Pizza Day. Here are a few ideas that might help drum up sales:
- Pizza delivery special: 2 large pizzas for $41. This would only work if you already serve pizzas that cost more than $20 per pop. Keep in mind, though, that when Hanyecz bought his two pizzas in 2010, Sturdivant is said to have covered the delivery fee and tip. So this special could be an all-inclusive deal that might catch some eyeballs.
- Offer to accept Bitcoin—and/or donate proceeds to a charity of your choice. It’s relatively easy to set up a cryptocurrency wallet on several different payment platforms, including Venmo and Paypal. Perhaps your pizzeria could accept Bitcoin payments for one day only and then convert those payments into sales. Maybe it’s worth donating those Bitcoin proceeds to a charity of your choice in order to make the day a bit more meaningful.
- Offer two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin. Okay, this one might not work—it’s unlikely anybody is going to pay $670 million for a pair of pizzas—but perhaps posting something like this on social media might be a humorous way to honor Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Of course, cryptocurrency is not without controversy. It is still widely regarded as a speculative and highly volatile investment. And despite transactions like the one conducted by Hanyecz and Sturdivant becoming more common, some critics assert that it has very little utility at scale. Beyond that, others have concerns regarding Bitcoin’s environmental impact.
With those controversies in mind, it’s worth considering whether a Bitcoin Pizza Day promotion is right for your pizzeria. Or at the very least, note that if you do run a promotion, some gripes might show up on your social media channels.
As for what became of Hanyecz, he gave a 2019 interview to Anderson Cooper on CNN. Cooper asked Hanyecz, “Are there nights you wake up, where you think, ‘I could have $800 million…if I hadn’t bought those pizzas?”
“I think (that) thinking like that is…not really good for me,” replied the Florida-based programmer. In other words, he says he doesn’t regret spending his Bitcoin stash on pizza. Since then, he cashed in the rest of the Bitcoin he owned before they rose to $1 value so he could buy a computer. Maybe the nicest thing that can be said about Hanyecz’s investments is that he was ahead of the curve—and once got two Papa Johns’ pizzas to show for it.
