Bitcoin Pizza Day

Upcoming Friday marks an extraordinary day on the cryptocurrency calendar. Bitcoin Pizza Day is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Let’s go back to May 2010, for those who are unfamiliar with this (in)famous event.

Laszlo Hanyecz

On the 18th of May, the Romanian programmer Laszlo Hanyecz was hungry for some pizza. Being low on cash (but having an abundance of bitcoins), Laszlo visited his favorite online forum BitcoinTalk and asked if there was a pizza place that accepted bitcoins as a way of payment. Mind you that this event took place in 2010, the very early days of BTC where the majority of people had never heard of Bitcoin before. The chances of Laszlo finding a restaurant that accepted digital currency were slim to none.

Two pepperoni pizza’s

A few days later, on a faithful Tuesday night (22nd of May), Laszlo tried a different approach. On BitcoinTalk, a random user named ‘jercos’ accepted Laszlo’s offer of 10.000 bitcoins (worth $41 at the time) and was willing to send two pizza’s to his home address. That evening, two pepperoni pizza’s where delivered to Laszlo and the beginning of a historical day in crypto history was a fact.

This legendary thread can still be read on BitcoinTalk.

10.000 BTC

The reason this event is still remembered today is the fact that Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10.000 btc on his two pizzas. If we convert those 10.000 btc’s to euro’s we would receive (during the writing of this article) the hefty sum of approximately €89.140.000. The key takeaway (no pun intended) here is not the insane sum he would have received today, but the fact that Laszlo made an important first step for Bitcoin as a way of payment. Laszlo Hanyecz saw a future where Bitcoin was a common way of payment. That is why Bitcoin Pizza Day will always be remembered by the cryptocurrency community and we thank Laszlo for that.