How We Were Buying Pizza with Bitcoins in the US, UK and India on Bitcoin Pizza Day 2016

How easy is it to order a pizza with Bitcoin nowadays? Three authors of Cointelegraph have tried to do it in the US, UK and India, and here is what came out of it.
How easy is it to order a pizza with Bitcoin nowadays? Three authors of Cointelegraph have tried to do it in the US, UK and India, and here is what came out of it.

How easy is it to order a pizza with Bitcoin nowadays? Three authors of Cointelegraph have tried to do it in the US, UK and India, and here is what came out of it.

“Ordering Pizza with Bitcoin in India is nigh impossible” - Shivdeep Dhaliwal, India

I have never purchased anything with Bitcoin in India yet. Ever. No pizza chain in my city takes Bitcoin, so my idea was to buy a voucher with Bitcoin from either ZebPay or to credit a payments app called Mobikwik through Unocoin and buy pizza through that. Alas. This was not to be.

The Zebpay voucher had ran out of validity and Unocoin requires a long winded registration process that involves verifying your identification documents that couldn’t be possibly completed, as today is a Sunday.

If I have learnt anything it is this that Indian Bitcoin scene has yet to grow from its infancy. Not only does nearly no one accept Bitcoin directly at the counter, even Bitcoin exchanges are not providing transactional services on weekends.

Furthermore even if I had purchased a voucher, it would not have worked today because Domino’s, the only Pizza company that accepts such a voucher is having technical difficulties on their website and would not let me log into my account. The Pizza with Bitcoin is thus Dead on Arrival.

However I promised Pizza, and Pizza we shall have, though it would only have to be purchased with good old Rupees in a bank. So here it is a Hot Tandoori Chicken Pizza, fresh from India!

Pizza of Shivdeep Dhaliwal, India

“Remember, no pizza the day before pizza day!” - Andrew Quentson, UK

When I was asked to buy a pizza with bitcoins, I thought it was going to take me hours of research figuring out how. To my surprise, it couldn’t be easier.

You can just go to Takeaway.com, order a pizza and just send them the bitcoins. Then enjoy your pizza on pizza day.

“Paying with Bitcoin was as time-consuming as paying with a credit card” - Joël Valenzuela, US

In the United States, pizza is a staple of the American diet (especially for groups), and freely available in almost every town and city.

The standard pizza is pepperoni, though Americans are very fond of making almost any kind of food into a pizza. You can find sausage pizza, bacon pizza, mac and cheese pizza, teriyaki pizza, buffalo chicken pizza, even Mexican taco pizza.

I bought a bacon cheeseburger pizza from Papa John’s in Durham, New Hampshire. Papa John’s is a popular national chain, and I used Bitcoin to buy a gift card through Gyft. The Gyft app has adjustable amounts for gift cards a Bitcoin payment option which integrates directly into the Bitcoin wallet.

Paying with Bitcoin was roughly as time-consuming as paying with cash or a credit card.

Joël Valenzuela, US