Did you know someone bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010?
Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!
Today is a special day in cryptocurrency. I honestly consider it to be the kinda of ground zero for Bitcoin having real world value. If you haven't been in crypto long, you may not realize that back then.. Bitcoin was just magic internet money that was used on forums and not really for much else. Some hardcore anarchist nerds on the internet were really the only people doing anything with it at the time. It was super early days.
These incredible individuals that were using Bitcoin back in the day on BitcoinTalk were the true pioneers that knew BTC had value before anyone else. On May 18th, 2010, BitcoinTalk user laszlo made a post offering to pay 10,000 BTC for 2 large pizzas and this is where it all began. BTC wasn't on any exchanges or anything like we have today. Hell, there weren't really any crypto exchanges at all.
This post was met with a lot of enthusiasm but skepticism. One user even stated that he would be paying "far too much" and that he could sell those 10,000 BTC for $41! I also love that he referred to it as free pizza. Little did either of them know that that BTC would be worth over $300 Million!
10,000... Thats quite a bit.. you could sell those on https://www.bitcoinmarket.com/ for $41USD right now..
good luck on getting your free pizza.
2 days later, he commented asking if he was offering enough BTC since no one was willing to get him pizza for that amount. If only they had known just how much money that would be today. How could they have known? It's literally impossible. This guy knew that someone had to establish a basis for this *magic internet money to have value. Someone had to be that guy.
On May 22, 2010, laszlo reported that he had successfully paid 10,000 BTC for pizza! History had literally been made by some nerds on the internet that loved pizza. The first ever real world purchase with cryptocurrency was officially posted to the Bitcoin blockchain.
Unfortunately the link he posted with his picture proof of said 10,000 BTC pizzas is dead, but the Wayback Machine didn't let me down. Take a gander at the first ever real world Bitcoin purchase. Just 2 regular old Papa John's pizzas, but what's really special is the fact that he left his wallet address and signature there. The first receipt for a Bitcoin puchase.
Because the blockchain is a ledger of every single transaction, we can take a look at it. The transaction can be viewed here and you can even see where that 10,000 BTC went after the purchase.
Just read that bottom line. At the time, 10,000 BTC was sent wit ha value of $0.00. The current value of the transaction is $299 Million. What a magical piece of history this is to look at. It will surely go down in the first crypto museum.
The thing that really made this special was that the people that made it happen had no care about the actual value. They were trying to make BTC a real currency that could be used, and the only way to do that was try to establish a market value. Nearly a month later in June, laszlo posted again stating that this was a standing offer as long as he could generate enough BTC to make it happen.
Clearly he was a super early miner, probably mining hundreds of BTC per day on a shitty computer. BitcoinTalk user ribuck knew that this was a million dollar transaction.
Would he have ever guessed $300 million? Probably not as this would have sounded absolutely insane at the time. This post was kept alive for over 6 years and then it finally died. I guess people had started to move on to other crypto projects.
laszlo was a true pioneer of the Bitcoin world, and will be remembered more years to come as the guy that made the worst trade ever. $300 million for $20 worth of pizza sounds absolutely insane. But he knew exactly what he was doing. He was changing the world. He was establishing real world value for the most revolutionary asset the world has ever seen.
“People ask me… oh man what an idiot why didn’t you keep that bitcoin? It’s like, well, you know, somebody had to start it off.”
What a legend. Cracking a beer for you on this fine Sunday.
Remember guys, we're all gunna make it.
The market will only get you down if you look at it the wrong way.
Pizza.