Bitcoin Pizza Day was born on May 22, 2010, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10.000 Bitcoins for 2 Papa John's pizzas. Today, those pizzas would be worth more than $290 million.
Nowadays, owning 10.000 Bitcoins is something that many people dream of. However, in 2010, it was nothing special, as Bitcoin had hardly any value at the time. In fact, when on May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Haynecz paid his Two family size pizzas from Papa John's With 10.000 Bitcoins, the value of that transaction was just over $40.
What happened? It all started on May 18, 2010, when Laszlo Haynecz posted a message on the BitcoinTalks forum, in which he offered to pay 10.000 Bitcoins to anyone who would bring him home a couple of pizzasIn his message, he explains to other users that he likes onions, sausages, peppers, pepperoni, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Four days later, Laszlo posted another message announcing that he had achieved successfully exchange a couple of family pizzas for 10.000 BitcoinsThe lucky recipient of the payment was Jeremy Sturdivant, aka “Jercos,” a 19-year-old student who had contacted Haynecz via IRC and who ordered the two pizzas from Papa John's, paid for them online, and had them delivered to Haynecz's home.
At the time, the two protagonists did not think that this day would be marked forever on the calendar, they just wanted to prove that Bitcoin had utility as a currency for payments. Their intention was to show the entire community that they could trust in Bitcoin.
Although neither of the two actors were aware of it, they marked a milestone in history: the first transaction of real goods in the history of Bitcoin. This is how the “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.
You're probably wondering what happened to all those Bitcoins and whether Sturdivant is a billionaire today. The truth is that he isn't, as he spent his Bitcoins shortly afterward on travel and Buying video games on the Humble Bundle platform (something he says he does not regret).
And what about Haynecz? Well, apparently the two pizzas in our story were not the only ones the programmer paid for using Bitcoin (although it seems they were the first). In fact, Laszlo is proud to have spent another 100.000 Bitcoins on pizzas and says that for him, paying for dinners like that was like eating for free, since Bitcoin was his favorite pastime at the time.
Today, Laszlo Haynecz, who even starred in a small CBS documentary, says he has no regrets. having spent 10.000 Bitcoins on two pizzas“It was all I could do at the time and nobody knew what Bitcoin would become in the future,” he said in the documentary.
Haynecz also says he is proud to be one of the few who managed to speak to Nakamoto, saying he was a “somewhat paranoid, weird and bossy” guy.
PizzaDAO and Bitcoin Pizza Day
12 years after that first transaction, “Bitcoin Pizza Day” has become a major event for cryptocurrency lovers (especially Bitcoin lovers). For example, PizzaDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization of pizza lovers, will organize more than 100 parties around the world next Sunday to celebrate this event.
This year, the event will bring together several celebrities such as Seth Green, the core development team of Dogecoin, comedians Cheech and Chong and DJ Steve Aoki.
[hubspot type=cta portal=20298209 id=38fb28e1-1dc1-40e3-9098-5704ca7fcb07]
