Bitcoin Pizza Day – a breakthrough in the history of cryptocurrencies

The crypto community around the world marks today the 14th anniversary of the so-called Bitcoin Pizza Day, which has become an integral part of the history of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin itself. Exactly fourteen years ago, an event took place that has come to symbolize the beginning of Bitcoin’s use as a payment for goods and services. A user of the Bitcoin forum Bitcointalk ordered two pizzas in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins, demonstrating that Bitcoin can be used as a standard form of payment. 

How It All Started

The date was 18 May 2010, when László Hanyecz, a Florida-based programmer with Hungarian roots, made a post on the Bitcointalk forum announcing that he wanted to buy a pizza – ideally, two large ones, using bitcoin. As a reward for two pizzas, he offered 10,000 BTC to whoever would be willing to order, pick up and deliver the pizzas to his address.

Hanyecz was one of the first Bitcoin users to reportedly start mining Bitcoin back in 2009. By the time he ordered a pizza through a Bitcoin forum, he had managed to amass a significant amount of BTC through mining. Between 2008 and 2012, the reward for mining a block was up to 50 BTC per block, which meant that he only needed to mine 200 blocks to accumulate 10,000 BTC. With no real use, these bitcoins were almost worthless at the time, and their value was estimated at $41, meaning that one bitcoin was worth about half a cent ($0.005).

Until May 22, he had not been able to find anyone with whom he could make the purchase of pizza using bitcoin. On this day, however, a user going by the name “Jercos” agreed to make a purchase on Hanyecha’s behalf. He ordered two pizzas from a local Papa John’s pizzeria and had them delivered to Hanyecz’s house, who transferred 10,000 bitcoins to him as payment. “I just want to announce that I have successfully exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for pizza,” Hanyecz said afterwards. 

Consequences

Given the value of bitcoin in recent years, when in March this year it surpassed the price of $73,700, this purchase can be considered the most expensive two-pizza purchase in the history of humankind.Indeed, at the March market peak, the value of 10,000 BTC would have been as high as $737 million while their current price would be roughly $670 million.

But there is much more underneath the first commercial bitcoin transaction. Bitcoin Pizza Day symbolises the first real example of Bitcoin being used as a payment method, which has opened up a lot of controversy and sparked a huge interest in cryptocurrencies among the general public. This event contributed to the growth of Bitcoin and its gradual spread to other industries, as today we can see many restaurants, companies or even countries accepting Bitcoin as a payment method.

Hanyecz himself said in an interview that he does not regret the purchase at all. “I think it’s great that I got to be a part of the early history of Bitcoin in this way, and people know about the pizza, and it’s an interesting story,” he said in one of the interviews.

In conclusion, it can only be added that although buying a pizza from Laszlo Hanyecz was just a simple transaction, this act has become a huge catalyst for the cryptocurrency revolution. Since all transactions made on the Bitcoin network are stored on the blockchain, the transaction can be publicly traced. You can find it at this link.