Pizza day: the story of a pizza worth over $700 million!
Abstract
Laszlo Hanyecz is a programmer and bitcoin miner. For him, May 22nd is a special day, because in 2010, he bought two pizzas from Papa John using the then emerging BTC. This is regarded as the first example of buying physical goods with cryptocurrency.
Do you know how many BTC he spent? Believe me, this price is beyond your imagination!
The significance of National Pizza Day
Now, there are thousands of currencies in the cryptocurrency market, but if you think that cryptopayment is the topic today, you are wrong! About 12 years ago, when the world didn’t know cryptocurrency, let alone how to accept cryptocurrency payment, the first transaction of cryptocurrency payment took place. Bitcoin and pizza may not be together. However, pizza plays a vital role in the history of cryptocurrency, just like it does in our life!
From the humble beginning in 2010 to the market value reaching billions of dollars, Bitcoin has stood the test of time. Laszlo Hanyecz, an engineer, was indeed one of the early contributors. Many people think that this pizza transaction is an important catalyst for the popularization of Bitcoin.
On this day, some one-on-one small bitcoin transactions began. That day was not the only one who witnessed the bitcoin-pizza transaction. In fact, Laszlo Hanyecz said that anyone who is interested in exchanging 10,000 BTC for two pizzas at any time will make a deal immediately as long as he has the necessary funds.
This year marks the 12th anniversary of the well-known Bitcoin Pizza Day. Let’s learn more about this day!
Beginning
In 2010, bitcoin and encrypted payment were a very small thing, just like you and your neighbor had a party.
Only a few people know!
Only a few people pay attention!
Only a few people are willing to fight for it!
Laszlo Hanyecz is a pioneer who is willing to fight for the encryption industry. On April 16th, 2010, Hanyecz joined Bitcoin Talk Forum, a discussion forum initiated by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. He joined Bitcoin a few months after its first birthday, when the earliest community of Bitcoin was developing, surpassing the early times of Satoshi and Hal Finney.
As far as Hanyecz is concerned, he has become an active and prolific member of the Bitcoin community. In addition to mining bitcoin on his computer processor (CPU)-the only way before Hanyecz introduced GPU into the mining portfolio-he also used his skills as a programmer.
In the early days of Bitcoin, there was no reliable place for trading. Instead, direct trading was conducted through discussion boards and online chat rooms. At that time, cryptocurrency as an experimental technology was only worth a few cents.
In order to change this situation and improve the recognition of bitcoin, Hanyecz posted a post on an online forum, which roughly said that he wanted two large pizzas and hoped to exchange 10,000 bitcoins. Pizza can be bought from the store or homemade.
After this post was posted, there were few respondents. It was not until 4 days later, at 2:16 pm EST on May 22nd that the transaction was finally completed. Hanyecz posted on the same day to show off the success of the transaction: “I just want to tell you that I successfully exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas, thanks to jercos (net name).”
According to the highest price of BTC, this is a “big meal” worth more than 700 million dollars! This day is also an important milestone in the history of bitcoin and encrypted payment.
The pizza provider of jercos, the ultimate recipient of 10,000 bitcoins, was Jeremy Sturdivant, a California guy who was only 19 years old. In the eyes of many people, Sturdivant is undoubtedly lucky, because at the current currency value, this transaction should have made him have a huge wealth that many people never dreamed of. In other words, although he gave away two pizzas, he got “the biggest pie falling from the sky”.
However, the real situation is far from what people think.
Throw away the biggest pie falling from the sky …
In fact, shortly after Sturdivant received these 10,000 bitcoins, he chose to cash out all of them after the bitcoin rose slightly. Sturdivant and his girlfriend used the money to go on a trip.
I remember in another “Pizza Festival” in 2021, Sturdivant, one of the protagonists of this festival, was also interviewed by the media. Sturdivant admitted that it was a great regret not to leave Bitcoin “affirmation”, but he said that he was only thinking about “facilitating the transaction” at that time, and he was more concerned about how to deliver the pizza to Laszlo Hanyecz. “I didn’t know how high Bitcoin would go,” Sturdivant said. “Looking back now, it is quite crazy to have so many bitcoins just to think about it. Of course, this was not eye-catching at the time, because Bitcoin was just getting started. “
He added, “Although I can’t say that the success of Bitcoin is attributed to me, I am still proud to participate in it and play a role in helping Bitcoin change from an interesting concept project to a global phenomenon.”
Like Sturdivant, Hanyecz, another party to the “Pizza Incident”, said in a recent interview that he did not regret the decision to buy the most expensive pizza in history.
Hanyecz said, “I think it is great that I can participate in the early history of Bitcoin in this way. I think what I have done is helpful. But I think if it weren’t for me, someone else would do it. Maybe it won’t be pizza. “
Bitcoin Pizza Day is still one of the most memorable events in the cryptocurrency market. It marks the first time that cryptocurrency has been used to buy real-world goods, igniting people’s confidence in the unlimited potential of this technology.
