“It wasn’t like bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool,” Hanyecz told Nick Bilton in a recent interview with The New York Times. “No one knew it was going to get so big.”Yet, the picture today is vastly different.Worldwide, there are more than 70,000 merchants accepting the young currency, with block chain transactions now averaging over 57,000 per day.In addition, data from coinmap.org indicates that more than 100 brick-and-mortar stores currently accept bitcoin for pizza – and this number is on the rise.Business tie-insRetailers are getting in on the action, too.eGifter, the popular gift card platform is giving away extra points to customers purchasing Domino’s, UNO and Papa John’s gift cards using either bitcoin, litecoin or dogecoin. The company is also providing a 10,000-point prize in honour of the 10,000 BTC used in Hanyecz’s transaction.E-commerce platform provider SnapCard is similarly commemorating Bitcoin Pizza Day by giving away 150 cheese pizzas for $0.99. At press time, the company was reporting an enthusiastic response, with roughly 30 orders placed in the first 10 minutes of the offer being live.Closer to CoinDesk headquarters, Takeaway.com lets UK customers choose from over 7,500 listed restaurants for home delivery, many of which may not even realise they are accepting the currency.After a quick postcode search for ‘pizza’ outlets, we decided to put the service to the test.Surely enough, Papa John’s – Hanyecz’s brand of choice – came top.A few clicks and a Blockchain web wallet workaround later (a drawback of using iOS) the pizzas were on their way.Pizza image via Shutterstocke-commercelifestylemerchantsOriginal author: Grace Caffyn