Two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. Hoje seems crazy, but it was the first purchase as a cryptocurrency – and it was just an experiment that saw the most important data in the history of the sector

This Sunday, May 22, will be the exact completion of 12 years of two of the most important events in the history of bitcoin, and consequently, of blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency market. The event virou até commoração: o Bitcoin Pizza Day, on the date that was made the first exchange of a cryptocurrency for a product – or, no case, two.

It was on this day, in 2010, that a cryptocurrency enthusiast bought two pizzas with bitcoin. It was the first purchase made with bitcoin. And it would be possible to buy a pizza for a tiny fraction of bitcoin, at the time they cost more: 10,000 bitcoins, equivalent to just over US$40 at the time and more than US$300 thousand at the current price.

For specialists who attended the EXAME, much more than a celebration of enthusiasts, this date marks a period of reflection on the trajectory of the greatest cryptocurrency in the world, its place today and, of course, where it can be.

Not on May 22, 2010, the first payment using bitcoin in the history of the asset. On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer from Florida, USA, published a kind of announcement in an online forum that brought together digital currency enthusiasts, saying he was willing to pay 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas, preferably large.

We did not respond to your message from him in the following days. A user had to redirect Hanyecz to a site where he could sell his bitcoins for about half a cent each and then buy the pizzas.

But finally, on the 22nd, a 19-year-old accepted the offer and sent two Papa John’s pizzas to the programmer’s house. “I want to report that I exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for pizza with success,” he wrote in the same forum.

For this reason, today, enthusiasts of the world’s greatest cryptocurrency gather together on the same date (online, of course) to celebrate the day that bitcoin is real for many people, including Henyecz himself. “A transaction transformed or bitcoin into reality for some people. With certainty for me”, he reflected in an interview with CBS in 2019.

In the same interview, Laszlo revealed that the exchange was only the first of many that he did after a while. Not total, he estimates he has spent 100,000 bitcoins to buy products – pizza, most of the time. At the current rate, 55% below the historical maximum of bitcoin, it would be equivalent to US$ 2 billion. When the cryptocurrency beats its price record, in November 2021, it would be worth more than the double disso.

But the pioneer of purchases with bitcoin does not regret it, and explains that he uses cryptocurrencies more as a hobby: “I wanted to make or launch a pizza because it was graça pizza. Eu ganhei pizza for contributing to an open source project. Generally, hobbies are consumers of time and money, but, in this case, my hobby gave me a lot of money”, he told Bitcoin Magazine. “I like to think that or that I did help. But I didn’t die, another person would be ugly or the same”, he complemented.

According to specialists, the importance of data can occur if it ends up functioning as a label that either bitcoin was undervalued a long time ago. And also how the technology developed into something much more solid since then. “I believe that Pizza Day is of extreme importance for the crypto market to demonstrate the advances that bitcoin has seen over time. Além disso, this day becomes even more significant in moments of bear market [market in stay] as we currently face”, says Henrique Teixeira, global head of Business Development of the Ripio crypto brokerage.

“Because this day is essential for the community to reflect that just as the market faces moments of volatility, or bitcoin is increasingly proven as a safe asset, which we see gaining confidence and popularity”, he completed.

João Canhada, CEO of Foxbit, sees the moment as a watershed for decentralized assets: “The pizza day became iconic in the entire world and has a historical importance for bitcoiners and lovers of freedom. It was the first time that a digital asset Truly scarce, independent of ideology, based purely on mathematics and without state press, it was used freely and spontaneously on a completely voluntary basis for a commercial transaction. It is much more than a pizza, it is about freedom.”

“O Bitcoin Pizza Day is, perhaps, the most important moment in the history of cryptocurrencies since the launch of bitcoin. If we don’t meet those two people who decide to exchange 10,000 bitcoins for pizza, maybe we won’t stay here now. Without this exchange, we would not be missing bitcoin at US$30,000 or US$69,000, as has happened recently”, added Caio Nascimento, Bitget’s marketing manager for Latin America.

Finally, in addition to savoring a pizza, or day it can serve as a reflection, as Georgia Sanches, head of Business Development at LoopiPay, says: “This moment represents a symbol that a large part of the market can be skeptical of cryptocurrencies, and it shows as the value of a token can change unexpectedly, like very rare investments and in a short space of time”.