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Tether is ‘instrument of freedom’ and ‘Bitcoin onramp,’ says Bitfinex CTO

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, made the case that Tether is a tool for human rights during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

On a sun-splashed day in the Swiss Alps, the chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino, shed light on the Plan B Lugano strategy, Tether as an onramp into Bitcoin (BTC) and —crucially — his favorite pizza toppings. 

Fresh off the plane from Norway, where Ardoino attended an increasingly Bitcoiner-friendly event, the Oslo Freedom Forum, the Italian explained that, in contrast to the WEF,there was no “shilling” in Norway.

Tether was invited to speak at the Oslo Freedom Forum as the stablecoin is increasingly considered an “instrument of freedom.” Tether has been adopted by the Myanmar government while the Ukrainian government has accepted crypto donations, including Tether, since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war. 

“Tether is one of the tools to be used by distressed countries where the national currency is devaluating—where people want an edge against insane inflation.”

Ardoino cites Turkey and Argentina as examples. The Turkish lira has lost 50% of its purchasing power and crypto, often seen as a hedge against uncertain currencies, is experiencing a second wave of interest. Ardoino also conceded that:

“Bitcoin is great but they want the price stability, the long-term price stability. [...] “Bitcoin is great for many things but it’s not yet understood by many.”

Regarding the Plan B strategy in Lugano, where Bitcoin and Tether are de facto legal tender in the Swiss city, Ardoino shared that educational models in Switzerland are being shared across to El Salvador.

“Bitcoin is for everyone. You have people in a poor country that need Bitcoin as the basic financial infrastructure. On the other side, you have a country with the most banks in the world, and they still need Bitcoin.”

Related: Tether launches crypto and blockchain education program in Switzerland

Ardoino also critiqued Satoshi Nakamoto's choice of pizza toppings. Bitcoin Pizza Day occurred the day before the WEF, a day where Bitcoiners around the world eat and attempt to pay for pizza with Bitcoin. The creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, famously enjoyed pineapple and jalapeños on pizza, to which Ardoino commented, “nobody is perfect.”

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Bitcoin Pizza Day rewind: A homage to weird and wonderful BTC purchases

In recognition of Bitcoin pizza day, the first-ever real-world transaction using Bitcoin, Cointelegraph speaks with the crypto community about their historic BTC purchases.

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! Before you dial for a Margherita to commemorate the world’s first real-world Bitcoin transaction, here’s a slice of trivia:

What do a family holiday to Japan, a 50 Cent album, a steak dinner, and a framed cat photo all have in common? 

They were all paid for with Bitcoin (BTC) by members of the Cointelegraph Bitcoin community! And just like the Bitcoin pizzas that cost 10,000 BTC, which are now worth more than $300 million, the community’s Bitcoin purchases have also skyrocketed. 

Benjamin de Waal, the VP of Engineering at Bitcoin exchange Swan Bitcoin told Cointelegraph, “I spent 7 BTC on a family trip to Japan a few years back.” In today’s value, 7 BTC is worth well over $200,000 —  but Ben’s happy because his kids are happy:

“It would have been worth a lot more now; but I don't regret it at all. A good childhood full of adventure, fun, and learning is priceless.”

Felix Crisan, the scammer vigilante, told Cointelegraph how he once spent 50 BTC (worth $1.5 million) developing a new software module for his company in 2015. Crisan added that in 2016:

“​​Let's not forget some almost 1BTC 'spent' betting who the next US president's going to be.” [...] Of course, I didn't win.”

That’s a $30,000 bet at BTC's current market price.

Jeffrey Albus, Editor at Cointelegraph, shared that he splashed out on a steak dinner to demonstrate Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer capabilities "sometime in 2011 or early 2012." 

"We paid 15 BTC — 12 for the meal, plus 3 BTC left as a tip (which the waitress probably threw away.)"

Worse still, the value of 15 BTC back over ten years ago was so small that it fell short of the total bill: Albus had to top it up with good old greenbacks. The value of the Bitcoiner-appropriate steak dinner is now worth shy of half a million dollars.

In a word to the wise, Julien Liniger, CEO of Swiss Bitcoin exchange Relai–and a Bitcoin maximalist through and through, told Cointelegraph that he “bought a bitcoin hoodie for 0.1 BTC back in the days, but that was the last thing” — a roughly $3,000 hoodie. He explained that “it then became too stupid of a thing to me to spend instead of stack sats.”

Meanwhile, the team at CoinCorner, the UK Bitcoin exchange behind the contactless Lightning Network payment card, shared a few stories. Danny Scott, the CEO, bought the 50 Cent album “Animal Ambition” with Bitcoin when the market price was around $600. 50 Cent famously “forgot” he accepted 700 BTC for the album — let’s hope Scott forgets the missed gains, too!

Molly Spiers, CoinCorner's Head of Marketing, told Cointelegraph, “I bought a photo postcard of my cats [...] for 0.009 BTC.” The $270 postcard was sadly not enough for Spiers to keep a hold of it; ‘I've lost them somewhere over the years - I'd have framed them with pride!”

Fortunately, there are “no regrets,” as it does “make for a good story.” Plus, she shared a picture of the cats:

Molly Spier's cats. The photo postcard is sadly lost. Source : Molly Spiers

While “experimenting with Bitcoin as a currency,” Matthew Ward, CoinCorner’s software developer, told Cointelegraph that he “bought the game Cities Skylines back when it launched on Steam in March 2015 for 0.108 BTC.” You can be the judge of whether the graphics merit a $3,000 price tag:

Cities Skylines gameplay. Source: themacgames.net

Finally, Didi Taihuttu, known as the father of the Bitcoin Family and sometimes the Bitcoin tattoo guy, spent 2.75 BTC on a Bitcoin miner in 2014. Taihuttu told Cointelegraph that “the strangest part is that when BTC hit around $200, I gave up mining BTC and started to mine dogecoin (DOGE).” Had he held the BTC, he would have over $180,000.

Related: ​​Try topping this: PizzaDAO celebrating Bitcoin Pizza Day with 100 parties worldwide

Taihuttu also shared that during his adventures as The Bitcoin Family, he’s parted with over 9 BTC ($270,000), which he describes as “losing 9 BTC but gaining an amazing adventure.”

And for those wondering what happened to the 10,000BTC Hanyecz spent on the pizzas, according to Cointelegraph research, 5% of the total landed in a very wealthy wallet, while “some of the funds were seemingly liquidated” on a failed crypto exchange.

The wealthy wallet that chowed down on some of Hanyecz’s BTC is in the top 15 richest wallets in Bitcoin, accumulating over 53,000 BTC. The total spent or sent from the wallet is 0 BTC: a certified Bitcoin hodler.

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Which DAOs have the most potential in 2022? | Watch The Market Report live

On this week’s episode of “The Market Report,” Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss which DAO has the most potential in 2022.

“The Market Report” with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss which decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have the most potential in 2022.

But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down.

Next up, the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as they debate which DAO has the most potential. Will it be Bourgi’s pick of MonkeDAO, with its large community, Solana-based ecosystem and more than $10 million staked, earning around 7% to support the DAO development?

Not to be outdone, Yuan comes in with the tasty pick of PizzaDAO, which is one of the most revolutionary DAOs to hit the market. It is a global community of creators and pizza lovers who believe that pizza should be free. The DAO is selling rare digital pizza art in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to raise money to throw a global pizza party! Who wouldn’t want to get into that idea?

Lastly, we have Finneseth with his pick of Merit Circle, which taps into the hottest sectors in blockchain, gaming and the Metaverse. It helps provide a way for gamers to earn money playing the games they love. It also offers scholarships to players by lending them items from the treasury to be used for gameplay as well as delivering educational content with one-on-one coaching sessions to help scholars improve their performance. Currently, it supports 20 different popular games including Axie Infinity. Gaming is an immensely popular sector, but will it be enough to help push Finneseth to the top of our live poll? Once each of our experts has made their case, you, the audience, get to decide the winner by voting in our live poll, so be sure to stick around till after everyone’s presentations to cast your vote.

After the showdown, we’ve got insights from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a platform for crypto traders who want to stay one step ahead of the market. The analysts use Cointelegraph Markets Pro to identify two altcoins that stood out this week: The Sandbox’s SAND and Terra’s LUNA.

Do you have a question about a coin or topic not covered here? Don’t worry. Join the YouTube chat room, and write your questions there. The person with the most interesting comment or question will be given a free month of Cointelegraph Markets Pro, worth $100.

“The Market Report” streams live every Tuesday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC), so be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those like and subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

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Domino’s Pizza franchises in the Netherlands will offer workers Bitcoin salary

Any employee who earns more than minimum wage will have the option for the excess salary to be paid in crypto.

A franchisee of many Domino’s Pizza locations in the Netherlands announced today that its workers would have the choice of being paid in Bitcoin. 

According to Immensus Holding, the franchisee behind 16 Domino's Pizza locations out of the more than 270 in the Netherlands, its employees will be able to choose between being paid in euros or Bitcoin (BTC) for all salary above the country’s minimum wage. BTC Direct, a Netherlands-based crypto firm with a fiat-to-crypto onramp, will handle the payments for any of the company’s more than 1000 employees who choose to participate.

"We are a modern company, and we work with a lot of young employees,” said Immensus co-owner Jonathan Gurevich. “We hear them talking about Bitcoin and we want to offer the opportunity to own cryptocurrency.”

Dutch law requires that companies pay minimum wage for employees in euros. The minimum monthly wage in the country depends on age and hours worked, but generally workers aged 15-18 could expect to earn more working at the pizza chain than required by local law, meaning they could potentially pocket a little Bitcoin monthly.

Immensus’ announcement it would offer BTC payments coincides with the 11th anniversary of the first successfully documented commercial transaction of cryptocurrency for two Papa John’s pizzas, an event now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. However, it also comes the same week the price of Bitcoin and many cryptocurrencies experienced double digit percentage drops, with BTC almost dipping under $30,000.

"A monthly Bitcoin salary can be compared to dollar cost averaging into Bitcoin," said BTC Direct's Jerrymie Marcus. "So all the benefits are the same, you don't have to time the market, and in the long run you cancel out short and mid term volatility. This actually benefits the employee, they save value automatically in an ever-increasing asset."

In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz’s purchase of those pizzas cost him 10,000 BTC — worth hundreds of millions of dollars now. However, even some Bitcoin bulls and pizza lovers are seemingly hesitant to use BTC as a medium of exchange.

On Tuesday, Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano, known for his educational podcasts on crypto, announced he was launching a pizza company aimed at supporting small business and the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund. However, customers at the Bitcoin Pizza venture can only use crypto cards for payment. Pomp later explained his reasons for not accepting BTC:

"We don't want people giving up their Bitcoin for pizza, but rather we are working to raise money in the form of depreciating fiat dollars to help fund Bitcoin development.”

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Bitcoin bull launches pizza company that doesn’t accept crypto payments

A guy who loves Domino's is launching a pizza brand based on a Papa John's event that doesn't accept the crypto he espouses.

Just days before the anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, Bitcoin proponent Anthony 'Pomp' Pompliano has launched a pizza company aimed at supporting small business and the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund.

In an announcement on Twitter today, Pomp said his Bitcoin Pizza brand would be launching in ten U.S. cities beginning on Saturday, May 22. The start date coincides with the 11th anniversary of the first successfully documented commercial transaction of cryptocurrency for two Papa John’s pizzas — an event now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. However, while Laszlo Hanyecz’s purchase of those pies in 2010 cost him 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC), Pomp’s venture currently does not accept crypto as payment.

“Just as Bitcoin is working to disrupt the incumbent banks, Bitcoin Pizza will be working to disrupt the incumbent corporate pizza chains,” said Pomp, referring to the venture as “the first decentralized pizza brand” on the Bitcoin Pizza website.

Pomp, who is a well known fan of national pizza franchise Domino’s, said Bitcoin Pizza would only be offering 10,000 pies on its launch day to commemorate the historic BTC transaction. Pizza lovers can choose from a variety of pies with crypto-themed pun names, including Laser Eyes, Satoshi's Favorite, Lightning Meat, Capital Greens, and No Keys, No Cheese.

The profits from the first week of sales will go to support small businesses — local pizza eateries — as well as the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund. Launched by the foundation in June 2020, the fund is a privacy-focused project aimed at supporting developers making Bitcoin a safer tool for activists and journalists around the world. As of April 15, the Bitcoin Development Fund has given away $746,000 in BTC and fiat.

Within a few hours of the announcement, “Bitcoin Pizza” was trending on Twitter in the United States. The venture generally received positive support on social media from big names including Daryl Morey, the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, and What Bitcoin Did podcaster Peter McCormack.

However, some people including Twitter user Joel Valenzuela and Banana Capital founder Turner Novak were quick to ask why Pomp was seemingly unable to accept BTC payments for the pizza. According to the checkout page on the website, only credit cards are accepted at time of publication.

A Bitcoin bull and crypto proponent, Pomp is well known for educating others in finance on BTC through his podcast. He has persuaded Jim Cramer, the outspoken host of CNBC’s Mad Money, to invest in crypto, as well as comedian Bill Burr and many others.

Cointelegraph reached out to Pomp, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

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Bitcoin for pizza, not the other way around, says Papa John’s offer to UK customers

Users of cryptocurrency exchange Luno can claim $14 in BTC rewards before Sunday.

Famous pizza chain Papa John’s has begun giving away cryptocurrency rewards for customers in the United Kingdom.

According to the online offers of Papa John’s in theU.K., pizza lovers can receive 10 euro ($12) worth of Bitcoin (BTC) by spending 30 euro ($36) or more at select locations in the U.K. and Ireland. Users can claim the coins through cryptocurrency exchange Luno before Sunday.

Though it was not specified why the BTC offer is available now, the franchise has a notable history with cryptocurrency. On May 22, 2010 — known as Bitcoin Pizza Day — Laszlo Hanyecz became the first person to complete a successfully documented commercial transaction of crypto for two Papa John’s pizzas. The pies cost Hanyecz 10,000 BTC — a few dollars at the time, but now worth more than $544 million.

The crypto space is often flooded with pizza chains making crypto-related offers around Bitcoin Pizza Day. Last year, crypto exchange BitFlyer purchased pizzas from San Francisco shops and donated them to a number of homeless shelters.

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