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.

Met Mr. Bitcoin at the @BitPay Christmas dinner! #BitcoinBowl @BitcoinBowl pic.twitter.com/Ha9JSYFHXL
— Maria Gallippi (@BitPayMom) December 26, 2014

The turf at Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, somehow looked like this on Friday night:

My god this Bitcoin Bowl field is brutal pic.twitter.com/cmDN7hfoOt
— Phil Hecken (@PhilHecken) December 27, 2014

People naturally had some jokes about what the turf really looks like.

Exchange seen on twitter #BitcoinBowl pic.twitter.com/16qhGRE0U1
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 27, 2014

Field at the Bitcoin Bowl looks like if you asked a kid to draw the grass on with marker and it kept running out
— Peter Berkes (@peterberkes) December 27, 2014

Hey boosters, bitcoin is very anonymous. You know if a recruit just happened to give you a QR code
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 27, 2014

Back to the currency aspect -- many people still don't understand it! Those that do also have some quality jokes.

The Bitcoin Bowl trophy is a solitary bitcoin mounted on a plinth. It’s value will change by $3,862.23 between now and the end of the game
— PodKATT (@valleyshook) December 27, 2014

Explanation: Bitcoin's value has been known to fluctuate with frequency, lending to some of its intense criticism.

It doesn't matter. Bitcoin Bowl score will reset to 0-0 once someone walks into the game with a magnet.
— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) December 27, 2014

2014: RT @coindesk Mr Bitcoin sighting at the #BitcoinBowl pic.twitter.com/v9RaVFf1vp
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) December 27, 2014

There's a Bitcoin Bowl? WTF?
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) December 27, 2014

- Mike Fiammetta

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