MAY 22ND MARKS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST DOCUMENTED PURCHASE TO BE MADE WITH BITCOIN!

HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN:

On May 17th, 2010 Laszlo Hanyecz, a Jacksonville Florida software programmer decided he wanted to see if anyone would accept 10,000 units of a digital currency known as bitcoin in exchange for 2 pizzas. At the time, he had mined the bitcoins on his computer and they were worth about 0.003 cents apiece. He posted his request, Pizza for bitcoins? on a popular tech forum called Bitcointalk.org.

While a few enthusiasts responded about making the trade, geography seemed to create a roadblock. Laszlo’s prayers were finally answered just a few short days later on May 22nd, when another man in Florida named Jercos agreed to accept the 10,000 bitcoins in exchange for 2 Papa John’s Pizzas. Laszlo posted the following:

At the time of the transaction, 10,000 bitcoins were worth approximately $41.00 according to a popular bitcoin exchange. The question posed by Laszlo back in 2010 was kept alive on Bitcointalk.org for nearly 6 years following the transaction. With over 1400 comments added, this marked a significant turning point for the bitcoin community as bitcoin was now seen as a means of exchange with real value.

Often Laszlo is asked if he has any regrets given the immense popularity and market cap bitcoin has been able to achieve over the last 7, in which he responds “It wasn’t like Bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool,” Laszlo told The New York Times in 2013. “No one knew it was going to get so big.”

IMPORTANCE:

This bitcoin transaction between Laszlo and Jercos was so significant because at the time, no mainstream retailers were accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. This was considered the first real-world transaction using bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

“Bitcoin aficionados use that milestone every year to track the growth of the cryptocurrency.” – Mashable.com