Article Summary
May 22, 2025 marks the 15th anniversary of the first real-world use of cryptocurrency as payment for two Papa John’s pizzas. Laszlo Hanyecz, a software developer, paid 10,000 bitcoins for the pizzas, which were worth around $41 at the time. Today, those bitcoins are worth approximately $1.1 billion due to the surge in bitcoin prices. Bitcoin companies are announcing promotions and celebrations to commemorate this occasion, known as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
What This Means for You
- Recognize the significance of Bitcoin Pizza Day and its role in the history of cryptocurrency.
- Understand the value of bitcoins at the time of the first real-world transaction and their worth today.
- Learn how companies are celebrating this milestone and promoting crypto awareness.
- Be aware of the long-term appreciation of bitcoins and its role in the financial world.
Original Post
It’s not an official holiday – yet – but for many cryptocurrency enthusiasts “Bitcoin Pizza Day” is still special. Thursday marks the 15th anniversary of the first known use of cryptocurrency to buy real-world goods.
The 10,000 bitcoin that software developer Laszlo Hanyecz paid for two Papa John’s pizzas delivered to his Florida home on May 22, 2010, were worth about $41 at the time. Today they’re worth $1.1 billion, as bitcoin hits record high prices.
Several cryptocurrency companies are announcing promotions and other celebrations to mark Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Here’s the backstory of Bitcoin Pizza Day:
The first bitcoin was created in early 2009 by the digital currency’s still unknown creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. It started as a passion project for libertarian-minded computer nerds who wanted to create a digital payment system that didn’t rely on a third party – like a government or financial institution – for transactions.
Hanyecz was an early enthusiast and became active on an early bitcoin internet message board, offering technical advice on how to “mine” bitcoin more effectively.
Central to bitcoin’s technology is the process through which transactions are verified and then recorded on what’s known as the blockchain. Computers connected to the bitcoin network race to solve complex mathematical calculations that verify the transactions, with the winner earning newly minted bitcoins as a reward in a process known as mining.
In the early days, enthusiasts could mine bitcoin through their home computers and Hanyecz accumulated thousands of the new digital asset. Nowadays, mining bitcoin has become a highly competitive field with multi-billion-dollar companies using specialized computers in entire data centers to acquire new bitcoins.
In the early days, no one quite knew what to do with the bitcoin they were mining. On May 18, 2010, Hanyecz tried an experiment and poste…
Key Terms
- Bitcoin
- Bitcoin Pizza Day
- Cryptocurrency
- Blockchain
- Mining
- Satoshi Nakamoto
- Papa John’s Pizzas
ORIGINAL SOURCE:
Source link
