According to U.Today, on this day in 2010, Florida-based software developer Laszlo Hanyecz made history by purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. This marked the first commercial transaction using the original cryptocurrency. Laszlo had posted a request to buy pizzas with Bitcoin five days before the actual transaction on the renowned BitcoinTalk forum. With Bitcoin's current trading value close to $70,000, the two Papa John's pizzas would now be worth over $700 million. Fourteen years ago, these pizzas were valued at just $41.
The Bitcoin Pizza Index refers to the value of the Bitcoins used to buy these pizzas. The Bitcoin community celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day on May 22 each year to commemorate this historic transaction. In 2019, Hanyecz revealed in an interview with journalist Anderson Cooper that he had also bought numerous other items with Bitcoin, spending over 100,000 BTC in total. If he had held onto this sum instead of using it for transactions during Bitcoin's early adoption phase, he could have been one of the largest Bitcoin whales.
Despite its original proponents pitching Bitcoin as a means of payment, it has struggled to gain popularity in this role. However, it has successfully established itself as a store of value, with holders anticipating price appreciation.
