What a bad day to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day! Nobody is happy after the big pre-planned crypto crash, except some giant whales! It's a bad day for small traders like us because I never thought I had to see a manipulated market caused by a coordinated attack on Bitcoin.
But let's forget all the sadness because ups and downs are part of the market. If you are sad, then think about that guy who bought only two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Yeah, you heard it right.
It's an actual incident! It was the first-ever documented commercial transaction of Bitcoin for a physical product.
You're going to love this story. If you already know this, let's trip back to the memory line.
This is the story of Laszlo Hanyecz, a developer, Cryptocurrency enthusiast, and early believer in cryptocurrency. So he joined the forum Bitcointalk and started using it regularly. One day, he posted a thread on the forum saying that he would like to pay 10,000 BTC for a couple of pizzas.
Original thread - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0
Within a short time, he got lots of responses, and a user named Jercos accepted the deal. Lazlo reached out to Jercos in the IRC chatroom privately and completed this "Pizza for Bitcoin" deal. According to the plan, Laszlo sent 10,000 BTC, and Jercos ordered two supreme Papa John's Pizzas online.
He delivered Laszlo two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC, and the rest is history. At that time, Bitcoin's price was roughly $0.01. This transaction happened on May 22nd, 2010, which was the first documented exchange involving Bitcoin.
After getting those two legendary pizzas, Laszlo thanked Jercos and uploaded photos on a website named heliacal.
Today price of 10,000 BTC is around $505,248,000 (as of 08 March 2021). I don't how many pizzas he could have bought now! Forget about pizzas! He could set 1000 of Papa John's franchise in 1000 locations.
But wait! You can't blame Laszlo, or he shouldn't be depressed for this transaction at all! At that time, Bitcoin was only one year old, and it was impossible to think about crazy insane prices in the future. Nobody can believe that time how far Crypto will progress in a short time.
Actually, Laszlo has more bitcoin at that time, and he was willing to pay more BTC for more pizzas!
This is an open offer by the way.. I will trade 10,000 BTC for 2 of these pizzas any time as long as I have the funds (I usually have plenty). If anyone is interested please let me know. The exchange is favorable for anyone who does it because the 2 pizzas are only about 25 dollars total, maybe 30 if you give the guy a nice tip. If you get me the upgraded extra large ones or something, I can throw in some more bitcoins, just let me know and we'll work something out. My 1 year old daughter really enjoys pizza too! She just smears it all over her face if you give her a whole slice, but she does eventually manage to get most of it in her mouth (minus a few loose toppings of course). Source
Laszlo made a similar transaction in February 2018. He sent 0.00649 Bitcoin (which was worth around $67 at that time) using Lightning Network, a system work for low crypto transaction fees.
The "Pizza for Bitcoin" deal happened on May 22nd, and just after two months, Bitcoin got a dramatic gain. The price was increased by around 3000%! It jumped from around $0.0008 to $0.08 within a month! Just within a year, in 2011, Bitcoin touched the price of $1.
When any stock or asset is going to get this kind of price gain, that means it is getting lots of investors! "Pizza for Bitcoin" story went viral at that time, besides other factors that also helped Bitcoin gain this insane price.
I checked the thread's comment, and people are still laughing at him or criticizing him! But the fact is we should not gossip about what he could have done. We should talk about what he did! He made history!
When nobody believed in Crypto, general people didn't have any slightest idea about Crypto; he purchased a physical item with Bitcoin. After this incident, and after a specific time, people understood that Bitcoin has some real value and can actually buy something with it.
May 22nd is now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day and celebrated by Crypto enthusiasts, bloggers, and exchanges worldwide. Does Laszlo Hanyecz feel bad for this investment? Not actually! He told in an interview that he has no regrets and feels proud of this transaction as he wrote his name in the history.
Who knows it could happen with us too? Maybe the price of other cryptocurrencies like Hive, Leo could go to the moon in the near future. Are we going to hold our coins for that long?