The Most Expensive Pizza in History
On May 22, 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz made history by paying 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John’s pizzas. At the time, Bitcoin was worth fractions of a cent, making the total about $41.
Today, those 10,000 BTC would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This transaction is celebrated every year as Bitcoin Pizza Day — the first known real-world purchase using Bitcoin.
Why It Matters
The pizza transaction proved something crucial: Bitcoin could be used as actual money. Before this, Bitcoin was mostly a curiosity among cryptographers and cypherpunks. Laszlo’s purchase demonstrated that people were willing to accept Bitcoin in exchange for real goods.
A Lesson in Value
Some people laugh at Laszlo for “wasting” his Bitcoin on pizza. But Bitcoiners see it differently. Without people willing to spend Bitcoin in its early days, it never would have gained traction as a currency.
Every new technology needs early adopters who are willing to use it — even at what later seems like an absurd cost. Laszlo didn’t waste his Bitcoin. He helped prove that Bitcoin works.
The Legacy
Bitcoin Pizza Day has become one of the most important dates in Bitcoin culture. It reminds us that Bitcoin started as a grassroots experiment and grew into a global monetary network — one pizza at a time.