The Story of The Bitcoin Pizza

How hungry would you have to be to buy two pizzas for USD 197,832,100? Pretty hungry, huh?

Interestingly enough, with some creative conversions, that is what Laszlo Hanyecz bought these two pizzas for on 22 May 2010 (8 years ago today).

They don’t even look that yummy if you ask us.

Bitcoin Pizza – Sequence of Events

Here’s some background to clarify the above statements. On 18 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz wrote this exact message on bitcointalk.org (the thread is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195#msg1195):

I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day.  I like having left over pizza to nibble on later.  You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy!

I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.. just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that.  I also like regular cheese pizzas which may be cheaper to prepare or otherwise acquire.

If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal.

Thanks,
Laszlo

Four days later, on 22 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz declared:

“I just want to report that I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.”

At the time, 10,000 BTC was worth around USD 41. At BTC’s all-time-high more than seven years later, 10,000 BTC was worth almost USD 200 million (USD 197,832,100 to be precise). The seller of the pizzas was Jeremy Sturdivant, who apparently was 18 years old at the time of the transaction. He sold the 10,000 BTC sometime later for USD 400.

Bitcoin Pizza – Significance of the Events

The pizza-transaction is a historic event since it is the first transaction ever where goods have been paid for by BTC. Accordingly, Laszlo Hanyecz became the first buyer of a good paying BTC and Jeremy Sturdivant became the first seller of a good receiving BTC. To commemorate the transaction, May 22 has been dubbed Bitcoin Pizza Day. Pizza providers worldwide offer discounts to bitcoin users to commemorate the transaction.

There is also a Twitter-account that each day provides an update on what the Bitcoin-pizza is worth today: https://twitter.com/bitcoin_pizza

Writing this text has made us hungry for pizza. We think we’ll order one right now (but pay with fiat-currency). Or not.

Happy Bitcoin-pizza day!