Football fan holds up QR code, gets $23K in Bitcoin
A football fan made a sign containing a QR code and Bitcoin logo, and held it up during the broadcast of ESPN's College Football Game Day. A Reddit thread and several Tweets later, he received almost US$23,000 worth of Bitcoins.
According to a post on CryptoJunky.com, the sign read simply "Hi mom, send" but displayed a QR code and Bitcoin symbol. When scanned, the code contained the Bitcoin wallet address of the football fan who was later identified by his Reddit username, "BitcoinPitcher2".
Viewers who recognized the symbol, captured the code, and started a thread on Reddit in support of his quest, even providing a digitized copy of his QR for those who missed the broadcast. Others tweeted, and retweeted.
For his efforts, "BitcoinPitcher2" garnered 118 transactions totaling 23 Bitcoins which, if he cashed in at the current rate, would be worth US$22,949.
He offered to donate the bulk of his Bitcoin earnings, stating on Reddit that most of it would go to Florida-based homeless shelter, Sean's Outpost.
The crypto currency has grown exponentially in value since U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it "may hold long-term promise" at a senate hearing last month. BTC China became the world's biggest trading platform and the People's Bank of China last week said it would not stop the use of the currency, though it had no plans to legalize its use.
India also has a 50,000-strong Bitcoin community, of whom at least 30,000 own the currency.