{"id":33,"date":"2022-02-09T17:09:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T17:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcgeorge.edu\/peopleofpacific\/2022\/02\/09\/2022-2-8-engineering-alumnus-anthony-shafer-throws-the-worlds-largest-pizza-party-with-nft-pizza-art\/"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T19:24:37","slug":"engineering-alumnus-anthony-shafer-throws-the-worlds-largest-pizza-party-with-nft-pizza-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacific.edu\/blog\/2022\/02\/09\/engineering-alumnus-anthony-shafer-throws-the-worlds-largest-pizza-party-with-nft-pizza-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering alumnus Anthony Shafer throws the \u201cworld\u2019s largest pizza party\u201d with NFT pizza art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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February 9 marks International Pizza Day, and what better way to celebrate than with a worldwide pizza party? That\u2019s exactly what Pacific alumnus Anthony Shafer \u201997 did last year\u2014through the power of NFTs and cryptocurrency. Shafer shared his experiences in the crypto (and pizza) worlds during his January appearance at the Pacific Alumni Association\u2019s Lunch and Listen series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from Pacific with a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer engineering<\/a>, Shafer worked for Industrial Light and Magic for two decades, working on visual effects for blockbusters like the Star Wars prequels and \u201cHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.\u201d He is currently a technologist for a company called Penumbra that creates virtual reality devices to solve medical problems, like traumatic brain injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in his spare time, Shafer is cofounder of Rare Pizzas<\/a>, a community of over 2,500 online creators who came together to throw the \u201cworld\u2019s largest pizza party ever\u201d to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day. Shafer and his fellow \u201cpizzaioli\u201d (a group of talented artists and developers in the crypto space) sold 10,000 unique generative art NFT pizzas to buy over 100,000 real life pizzas at restaurants all over the world and give them away for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe decree pizza should be free. No one should be hungry!\u201d reads the \u201cPizzaDAO Cheesepaper<\/a>,\u201d a public Google doc that summarizes the coalition\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re sure you have more questions. Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Bitcoin Pizza Day?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin Pizza Day\u2014May 22, for the uninitiated\u2014is well-known within the cryptocurrency community. Back in 2010, in the early days\u2019 virtual currency, a Bitcoin developer named Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John\u2019s pizzas by trading bitcoins, completing what is largely considered the first cryptocurrency transaction of real world goods. Hanyecz bought his pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins, which equated to a little over $40 in 2010. Today, Hanyecz\u2019s 10,000 bitcoins would be worth about $680 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To crypto devotees, Bitcoin Pizza Day is significant because it not only proved that it is possible to make a transaction in crypto and make a physical purchase in the real world, but also shows how far Bitcoin has come since the early 2010s. Plus, the pizza connection is endlessly memeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how did Rare Pizzas happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shafer was chatting with others in the crypto community about Hanyecz\u2019s significance to Bitcoin history through an app called Clubhouse, where users can meet in live audio chatrooms, when an idea emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey, yeah, Bitcoin Pizza Day is coming up. We should do something\u2026let\u2019s sell pizza NFTs to raise money to throw the largest pizza party in the world on Bitcoin Pizza Day,\u201d Shafer recalled. \u201cIt seemed to make perfect sense.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group hopped onto a Google Doc and started making plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea was, \u2018OK, we\u2019re gonna make pizza art,\u2019\u201d said Shafer. \u201cWe need artists to draw toppings, and then we will bake this onto a pizza that is rare and then we\u2019re going to sell that pizza on the OpenSea (online NFT marketplace).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold up, what\u2019s an NFT?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay, buckle in. For starters, NFT stands for non-fungible token. \u201cNon-fungible\u201d basically means that the item is unique and can\u2019t be copied or divided. In contrast, bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are fungible (one bitcoin equals one bitcoin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An NFT\u2019s transaction history is stored on a blockchain, a digital ledger, that certifies the NFT\u2019s value. An NFT can be virtually anything digital, like a concert ticket, a GIF, trading cards, in-game items, or, well, pizza art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rare Pizzas team decided to sell their pizza NFTs on a bonding curve, meaning the pizzas increase in value each time one is purchased (ending with a price cap of 10,000 bitcoins, in honor of Laszlo Hanyecz, of course). Remember, that equates to roughly $680 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the idea took off, the group would be able to raise enough money to really throw the world\u2019s largest pizza party and feed hungry people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, continue.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The plan was ambitious, but the team was fired up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe gun went off and everyone hit go,\u201d said Shafer. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re on a race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step was simple: organize. Rare Pizzas set up a Discord server and recruited people from within and beyond the crypto community, bringing in artists to draw toppings, developers to digitize the content and organizers to execute the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an online community ready to roll, Shafer and his pizza colleagues got to work making their vision a reality. Artwork started pouring in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got hundreds of submissions. We set up a Dropbox link and people just started drawing and submitting and it was out of control,\u201d said Shafer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the \u201cingredients\u201d kept coming in, Shafer got to work, using his decades of experience in visual effects and animation to produce a working model for the pizza NFTs using digital compositing software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of hours of work, thousands of volunteers and a whole lot of pizzas later, it was time to reveal the project to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its launch day, Rare Pizzas sold a million dollars\u2019 worth of pizza NFTs in five hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shafer (left) on Rare Pizzas\u2019 launch day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A million dollars from digital pizzas?!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yep. And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the proceeds from their pizza NFT sale, Rare Pizzas collaborated with Slice, a pizza ordering service that supports independent pizzerias, to give away 100,000 to pizza-lovers in the crypto community on Bitcoin Pizza Day in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort also supported over 300 struggling pizzerias in 60 different countries that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to activate a network of mafia members to go beat the street and pick up the phones and give away free pizza,\u201d said Shafer. \u201cWe also spent $30,000 directly to food banks and charities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rare Pizzas supplied IRL pizzas through digital pizza sales all over the world, including Peru, as seen here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rare Pizzas is planning their next global pizza party for May of 2022. The group is also working to become a non-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of today, Rare Pizzas has about 3,000 people involved in the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number one thing about the NFT and crypto worlds is that it starts with community,\u201d said Shafer. \u201cThis is a great funding mechanism. I think there are ways you can take artwork, launch it to a dedicated community and have that community\u2026become a donation engine. I think there are tremendous opportunities coming up. Pizzas are just proving it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can watch Shafer\u2019s presentation below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n