Beer of Satoshi: my experiment to get real people to actually use Bitcoin

Hi. I'm Altan. I am a non-native speaker, sorry for my English.

I'm a Bitcoiner here in Germany who always wanted to build something real that helps people actually touch and use Bitcoin. After years of watching friends get excited about Bitcoin in theory but never actually try it, I felt I needed to do something more practical than just talk or hodl. I wanted a simple way to put Bitcoin directly into people’s hands (or stomachs) in the real world.

The idea came up at Bitcoin Amsterdam 2024. I was there with friends, drinking beer and talking about adoption. We realized almost everyone has heard of Bitcoin by now, but many have never even held a single sat or made their first transaction. For most people it's still an abstract concept. On the train home I kept thinking about how to give someone their first sats in a way that feels fun instead of intimidating.

That’s how Beer of Satoshi started. It’s literally a beer with a surprise Bitcoin reward hidden under every cap. Being German, and growing up around beer culture, combining beer and Bitcoin felt natural to me.

Under the crown cap of every bottle there is a normal QR code. Nothing fancy. When you open the beer and scan it with your phone, it takes you to a website that instantly shows you how many sats you won. It can be something tiny like 21 sats or something bigger like 2100, or even up to 1,000,000 sats. You don’t know until you scan it, and neither do I. It’s randomly assigned when the bottle is opened.

The important thing is that you don’t need a Bitcoin wallet or any special app just to see what you won. The QR code simply opens in your browser. Only after the website shows your sats amount do we guide you on how to actually claim them. If you already have a Lightning wallet you just click once and redeem. If you don’t, the site shows you step by step how to quickly get one. We chose this approach deliberately. It's psychology: people are far more motivated to redeem something once they see what they’ve already won. If I ask someone to install a wallet first, many won't even bother. But if people see “You have X sats waiting,” suddenly they want to claim it. It makes the first step into Bitcoin much easier.

When we first tested it at a small Bitcoin meetup in Germany, I honestly wasn’t sure how people would react. But people were curious, scanning caps, laughing, comparing their sats amounts, and then talking about Lightning and Bitcoin for the rest of the night. Since then we’ve brought Beer of Satoshi to bigger events like the Plan B Forum in Lugano and Bitcoin Amsterdam 2025. Hundreds of caps have been scanned so far, and it’s been amazing seeing real people get their first sats from something as simple as a beer.

We also made a public leaderboard that shows every sats claim in real time. It’s anonymous, but people can see the overall stats and the biggest wins. It’s nice because it makes everything transparent and proves that yes, the sats under the cap are real and being claimed at events and in everyday situations.

I want to make one thing clear: this is not some gimmick to trick people into buying beer. Yes, I’m selling beer, but the Bitcoin inside the cap is the real purpose of the project. I see Beer of Satoshi as an onboarding tool disguised as a fun drinking experience. Our motto is “Drink beer, stack sats, support Bitcoin.” We also donate 2.1% of all sales to Bitcoin development and community work as a small way to give back.

Beer is just the starting point. My bigger hope is that this concept inspires others. The same idea could work with coffee, soda, chocolate, tickets, whatever. Any everyday product could hide a small Bitcoin reward that makes the experience more fun and introduces someone to Lightning without pressure. If more people get their first sats casually like this, Bitcoin becomes real to them much faster.

Thanks for reading my story. If you have ideas, criticism, or questions, feel free to ask me. This project is still early, but seeing even one newcomer redeem their first sats because of a beer is incredibly motivating and makes me excited for what comes next.

Cheers,
Altan