Internet, meet the Bitcoin Bowl
A bowl named for Bitcoin was always bound to get the Internet going. That's exactly what happened Friday night, when the inaugural Bitcoin Bowl was played between N.C. State and UCF.
Previously known as the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, the annual game played in St. Petersburg, Fla., announced its new sponsor back in June. Bitcoin is the most popular digital currency, and it gained popularity thanks to a 2008 paper written by either a person or group of people working under the moniker Satoshi Nakamoto. Businessweek can explain more:
The Bitcoin network uses a public ledger to record transactions made under pseudonyms, a technological breakthrough that allows purchases and sales without using a trusted third party, such as Visa Inc. or Western Union Co.
Powerful computers that record the transactions and guard against double-spending the same currency generate new Bitcoins, a process referred to as mining. Mining has made some early Bitcoin adopters wealthy in dollar terms.
Back to the game -- as one would expect, this sponsorship yielded some memorable reactions from throughout the Internet. For instance...
The Bitcoin Bowl, named after a digital, intangible currency, has its own mascot.
The turf at Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, somehow looked like this on Friday night:
People naturally had some jokes about what the turf really looks like.
Back to the currency aspect -- many people still don't understand it! Those that do also have some quality jokes.
Explanation: Bitcoin's value has been known to fluctuate with frequency, lending to some of its intense criticism.
- Mike Fiammetta