It has been 12 years since Laszlo Hanyecz made history. The cryptocurrency enthusiast paid 10.000 BTC for two large pizzas in what is now considered the first real-world Bitcoin transaction. At the time, 10.000 BTC was worth around $ 40. Today they are worth about 300 million dollars, with which you could probably buy an entire chain of pizzerias and have the change.
Hanyecz posted the following request on a Bitcoin forum: “I'll pay 10.000 Bitcoins for a couple of pizzas. Maybe two big ones, so that I have a few left for the next day. I like having some leftover pizza to munch on later. " A few days later, he reported that he had successfully made the trade. The programmer has actively contributed to the Bitcoin community, also developing a new computation code for mining.
Bitcoin Pizza Day
In 2010, few people involved imagined that Bitcoin would generate a trillion dollar market. Nor did they know May 22 would be forever celebrated as Bitcoin pizza day. Since then, Bitcoins have been used to pay for everything from cups of coffee to vacations and luxury watches. It is even possible to buy a house using cryptocurrency.
Here are other key moments in the evolution of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies:
- October 2008: Satoshi Nakamoto publishes a white paper outlining a decentralized peer-to-peer form of electronic payment.
- January 2009: Nakamoto creates 50 BTC and transfers 10 to Hal Finney, one of the early adopters of Bitcoin.
- May 2020: Hanyecz makes the first Bitcoin transaction in the real world.
- July 2010: Bitcoin starts trading. At the end of the year, 1 BTC was worth around $ 0,80.
- October 2011: Litecoin (LTC), one of the first altcoins, is launched. There are currently over 19.000 different cryptocurrencies, with many projects going far beyond serving as a decentralized form of payment.
- October 2013: Silk Road, a kind of black market platform that relied on cryptocurrencies, is being shut down by the FBI.
- February 2014: Mt. Gox, the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, is hacked and the company goes bankrupt. At one point, Mt. Gox was handling about 70% of all cryptocurrency transactions.
- December 2014: Microsoft adds Bitcoin as a form of payment.
- December 2017Bitcoin price explodes, opening the year at around $ 900 and ending at around $ 15.000, according to data from CoinMarketCap. When Forbes said 2017 would be known as the year of Bitcoin, he didn't know that the cryptocurrency king would hit a high of $ 69.000 in 2021.
- October 2020: PayPal enters the cryptocurrency market in the United States.
- February 2021: Tesla announces it will accept Bitcoin payments. The electric car company then backtracked on this decision, which coupled with China's move to ban cryptocurrencies again, caused the first major price drop of 2021.
- March 2021: Morgan Stanley becomes the first major US bank to offer Bitcoin to some customers.
- September 2021: El Salvador becomes the first country to give Bitcoin legal tender.
We could cite many other milestones, especially in recent years, when cryptocurrencies have made great strides in adoption and acceptance. However, we hope the above highlights give you a taste of some of the highlights when Bitcoin Pizza Day is celebrated.
What it means for investors
2022 wasn't the easiest year for cryptocurrency investors. Many assets have fallen 50% or more from their November highs and it is unclear when the market will recover. Indeed, some fear that the market may not recover at all. While there are many reasons to be optimistic, there are no guarantees as to what will happen next.
However, a brief look at Bitcoin's history reminds us of what happened in a relatively short span of time. Fourteen years ago, Bitcoin was an idea still being formulated in Satoshi Nakamoto's mind. He hadn't published the whitepaper yet. Since then we have seen incredible growth, a good deal of hacking and shady deals, as well as a host of other significant new and milestones.
If you first bought cryptocurrencies last year, it is understandable that you are concerned about what might happen to your investments. Perhaps it will reassure you to know that the value of a single Bitcoin has gone from under $ 1 to around $ 30.000 in about 12 years. It has already been a roller coaster ride and we will certainly see further volatility as the industry continues to delve into uncharted waters. Whatever one may say, the story of the world's first decentralized digital currency is far from over.
