FIRST BITCOIN PIZZA DAY & ARTICLE, THE MALAWIAN EXPERIENCE

 

Pacharo Nyirenda 

Posted from Yakihonne. 1 month ago 

Technically you have to learn the Mathematical hash functions to divide a pizza in equal pieces. All bitcoiners know this that's why they celebrate the Bitcoin pizza day. Okay that's exaggerated but here's how we enjoyed our Bitcoin Pizza day in Malawi as I really put to test my first published article, crafting my left hand as I intend to be a Bitcoin blogger, so bonna petite, kalibu!

photo credits: BitcoinBoma Flavatos, Gateway Mall, Lilongwe

I'd like to toss it off by thanking you my reader, friends, associates, strangers, bitcoiners, cryptonaires, economists, and critics from all walks of life for granting me this opportunity to write to you. yeah?...I hope that's readable? let me check if there's enough ink left to pen this? ,perhaps allow me to squash this script and develop new one! 

Okay i should admit, am terrible at introductions. That's not even the way Satoshi introduced his White paper back in 2008, or rather mined his first block. So dear reader,  lets pretend this introduction never happened, lets give it one more kick start. Alright we are set so here we go.

Flavatos, Gateway Mall, left ventricle of Lilongwe's heart, Malawi is where aroma of a fresh bitcoin pizza sent waves of spattering mining energy, broadcasting to all nodes over the bitcoin network. 

Pizza crumbs spread over the table, folks and knives faced opposite directions, tomato sauce on the white plate had contours of a pizza passage, a half baked joke & its laughter could be heard by passersby's heading inside the mall. It was chilly Saturday afternoon from outside but the soft drinks were a must to soften the well baked fragments of pizza which were being churned. All thanks to Laszlo Hanyecz.

Phones where right on the table as the photographer snapped every detail of moment with his camera,  trying to paint a bitcoin Monalisa,  innocence was in the youthful energetic bitcoiners who filled left and right seats in pairs.

Three long tables were joined together making a table tennis appear slightly shorter but the waitress had to check for any empty slot to squeeze a chair in. We were twenty three with the expection of thirty but the space was just plentiful. 

Flavatos was ready and set. The waitress with a smile of welcoming a guest whispered right besides where i was standing that the pizza is ready but i had to ask her to HODL for a moment, we were just setting up the laptop which we would use to connect & listen to a presentation by John Miller, a distant relative and a bitcoiner we had talked of for weeks.

As if I am an expert at analysing charts like a Wall street analyst, the looks of the faces were eagerly waiting and when I looked at my wrist, I realised we didn't have much more time rather than start off, so I clapped my hands to capture everyone's attention. I was excited to welcome everyone & i really appreciated everyone for sparing their time to come and joining us.

There was buzz in the atmosphere, all eyes glued to me as i thanked the co-founder Grant Gombwa for pulling the strings and in our presence we had founder of Women of Satoshi, Yankho Ngoleka who i was facing directly to my right hand side and threw me nod so i  acknowledge his presence. It was something already in my minds dial, i couldn't forget all pleasantries and formalities. 

John Miller sponsor for the Bitcoin Pizza who was currently in the US & was waiting to deliver a speech. It all started off well, my stomach turned as my brain signalled the pizza image, sending a tickling hunger sensation down to the gut, so not to keep everyone waiting longer, I handed it over to Grant who quickly threw it like a free shot on the free throw line. 

There was genuine appreciation as he set the floor ready for John Miller to grace and unwrap the Pizza. When John took to the google meet space, we all fixed our eyes on the phones, listening to John who was seven hours away from us, thats about two or three plane tickets and more than one taxi cab to get where he was physically located. John delivered a twenty-minute presentation that would make a fresh graduate take off his hat and really consider what they learn't the last four years in university.

There was a lot of knowledge in his presentation, highlighting the eminent nails to the coffin for the US dollar, the chart and numbers revealed the patterns, he further displayed how the purchasing power of the dollar has declined since 1971 post the Nixon shock. 

He spoke with authority on why bitcoin, and how Bitcoiners should continue orange pilling andusing bitcoin as money. He encouraged the audience to detox and engage an open mind to learn Bitcoin using all available resource tool kits and clear all pool of confusion found in the current FIAT system.

It was like listening to the wisdom of an old man, giving the torch to young ones. Much emphasis was given on how Bitcoin's limited supply and release schedule helped to maintain store of value, a true quality and feature of money. He also tackled the controlled inflation through difficulty adjustment as programmed by Satoshi Nakamoto. 

The waitress had brought to the table white, clean plates with some folks wrapped in a white napkin tissue that appeared like Satoshi's Bitcoin white paper. In no time the pizza was ready to bona petite, John wrapped up in a cosy style by saying, "keep stacking Sats and avoiding shitcoins." 

John Miller on a online call with Bitcoin Boma and participants 

The attendees were in pairs and hands were rubbing, contemplating how the first bite would feel. 

The enzymes were ready to digest. The next host, who happens to be the writer of this article, had to take the floor and give short remarks to thank John, Grant and everyone.

 I saw the pizza being cut into slices, whilst others took sips of their favourite soft drinks, there were smiles far left, right. 

The chewing sound was amplified, it triggering my ear drums to some hunger vibes. This was like a big family reunion. My signal for speaking almost went off as the aroma teased the mind, I saw the bubbles from the Fanta bottle move from the bottom floating all the way up but I was mature to control the temper of my hunger.

As the pizza halving was going on,  I reminded of how significant this moment was when Laszlo Hanyecz first made an offer of 10,000 BTC to buy Pizza & how it signified use case of bitcoin as a medium of exchange and a resort of finality between two counterparts without any middleman.

It surely was a moment that reminded us of the free markets. Where two counterparts chose their own commodities of exchange and each left satisfied as finality of transactions was reached. Truly those were the good old free market days. By the time I said goodbye, my counterparts had already mined half of the pizza on the table. 

I was about to pop a question of where my share was when I saw three more full plates of pizza broadcasted & waiting for verification on the MEMpool table. At this moment, i knew i only had one job to do, get the block of pizza, mine it and reward myself some Bitcoins.  I kept my mouth, hands and tummy busy. 

One surprising moment really fired me up with excitement. Grant stood up and surprised everyone by introducing his new friend from Kenya. He said they had met in Mulanje and how they came across each other was purely a barter coincidence of wants. 

Rather than explaining, he let our new Kenyan explorer share the fascinating story of how he buys different arts and crafts and has challenges in sending value through cross boarder exchanges. 

He explained how he has always wanted to find a platform with less hassles that enables sending funds in Kenya and back in Malawi but couldn't find means of translating our local currency into the Kenyan shilling.

He provided further insight on how how he incurres high charge fees and surveilance as he transacts using middlemen.  So how could these two opposite worlds tie together? Well, whilst in Mulanje he saw a "Bitcoin accepted here" plaque hanging on a local shop where Grant Gombwa resides. 

Taken by surprise, to look within as he knew Bitcoin was a common digital currency used in Kenya. He explained that most youths in Kenya use Bitcoin in their everyday life through a meduim known as Tando. Grant and our guest didn't waste a gist of time but click Using Bitcoin, he was able to send funds in Kenya via bitcoin lightning wallet through Tando and Mpesa. 

taking pictures after some pizza

As if we were in a cinema watching action unfold, a demonstration was showcased how inter transactions are done from a lightning wallet,  Wallet of Satoshi to Tando app. Tando is an application developed in Kenya that allows one to spend their Bitcoin in a wallet by converting the Bitcoin to Kenyan shilling. 

This allows one who doesn't yet access or accept Bitcoin to instantly receive funds in their prefered Kenya Shilling. It was truly a fantastic orange day to pill and slice. See you in the next article as I continue to polish my writing skills.

Pacharo Nyirenda.

re-edited 29/07/2025. 

Bitcoinboma, An amature writer but soon to be a pro writer & blogger!