What Is the Story Behind It And When It's Celebrated?
There was a man named Laszlo Hanyecz, a computer programmer from Florida, who became part of Bitcoin's history in a gastronomically unique way. On May 22, 2010, Laszlo made an unusual offer on a Bitcoin forum: he would pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas. At that time, Bitcoin was a passion for enthusiasts and hobbyists, and it had no significant monetary value. The idea that it could be exchanged for a real-world item like pizza was novel and exciting.
To Laszlo, the bitcoins he had mined on his computer were an experiment, a plaything of the digital age. He had already mined tens of thousands of bitcoins with relative ease, a feat that would be unfathomable years later when the mining difficulty skyrocketed.
After some discussion on the forum, a fellow Bitcoin enthusiast named Jeremy Sturdivant, going by the alias "jercos," took Laszlo up on his offer. Jeremy ordered two large pizzas from Papa John's to be delivered to Laszlo's house and in return, he received the 10,000 bitcoins.
Those pizzas, valued at about $41 at the time, would go down in history for their eventual worth. As Bitcoin's value soared over the years, reaching astronomical heights, the cost of those two pizzas grew into the tens, then hundreds of millions of dollars. May 22nd was commemoratively named "Bitcoin Pizza Day," and it's celebrated by the cryptocurrency community every year.
Laszlo Hanyecz's pizza purchase was a landmark moment for Bitcoin. It was one of the first known purchases of a product with Bitcoin and it demonstrated the cryptocurrency's potential as a means of exchange. However, it also serves as a reminder of the volatility and unpredictability of the value of digital currencies.