Fourteen years ago, someone bought pizza with Bitcoin

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It was, back then, a new transaction, conceived from peer-to-peer friendships, and dedicated to the proposition that commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions.

Now we are almost a decade and a half on, in a movement that could test whether the ideas conceived by Satoshi Nakamoto can endure. We are met with regulatory hurdles, we have come to a point where the people are divided as a new regime looms ahead. Many of us have dedicated our lives so that this idea lives on.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should keep building and sharing, believing that crypto as a movement will always take us forward. Now let’s look back.

Bitcoin Pizza Day

On May 22, 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz made history by purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, marking the first time a cryptocurrency was used for a commercial transaction. This event, now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day, is celebrated annually by the global crypto community as a reminder of Bitcoin’s humble beginnings and the incredible progress made since then.

Hanyecz, a programmer from Jacksonville, Florida, posted his offer on the Bitcointalk forum, one of the earliest online communities centered on Bitcoin.

As one of the earliest crypto enthusiasts and innovators, Hanyecz contributed to early developments in Bitcoin mining, publishing software to improve mining efficiency for GPUs.

At the time, no one could have predicted the significance of this transaction or the astronomical value that 10,000 BTC would hold in the future. Today, that amount of Bitcoin is worth approximately $692 million.

Looking back, Hanyecz harbors no regrets over the historic purchase. “Someone had to start it,” he says.

Bitcoin Pizza Days reminds us of the incredible journey that started with a simple pizza purchase. It’s a testament to the power of innovation and community and the potential for crypto to transform the way we think about and use money, programmable or otherwise.