2 Pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC)
Laszlo Hanyecz
is not well-known outside the cryptocurrency community, he is a software developer living in Florida and also an engineer working at online retail company GoRuck. But rather than his skills in software, he paid 10,000 BTC for 2 large Papa John's pizzas he bought for his children. Since this transaction took place on May 22, 2010, May 22 is known as Bitcoin Pizza Day in the cryptocurrency community, and it has been 11 years so far.
Since Bitcoin's first physical product payment was made, Bitcoin usage areas have increased and customers have been able to use Bitcoin as a payment method for real estate, shopping and many other services. In an interview with media outlets, Laszlo Hanyecz and Jeremy Sturdivant talked about the transaction carried out to buy the first physical product in Bitcoin.
The reporter began the interview by asking Hanyecz about his purchase of 2 large pizzas using 10,000 Bitcoins. When asked, Hanyecz stated that he had no regrets about performing the transaction and that this created the necessary usage area for Bitcoin and also enabled many people to learn about Bitcoin. Additionally, Hanyecz has developed versions of Bitcoin for MacOS and other versions and has provided information on how to develop on MacOS in the Bitcoin forums. Hanyecz later said that after developing the MacOS version, he was dealing with bugs in the Bitcoin network and preparing other updates. Finally, he mentioned that Bitcoin would not have come to this day if he had not bought a pizza with 10,000 Bitcoins.
In the second question of the interview, the reporter asked whether Hanyecz used Bitcoin in real life. To this question, Hanyecz said that he makes payments with Bitcoin whenever he gets the opportunity and mostly prefers to use it for online payments. He even said that even after all this time, he was still working on Bitcoin software and could be easily reached on the forums. Finally, he said that he does not prefer to communicate face to face. In the third question of Hanyecz's interview, he asked which cryptocurrency he liked the most. Hanyecz laughed at this question and answered Bitcoin. Since he is interested in Bitcoin software and uses Bitcoin as money, it is no wonder that Bitcoin is his favorite cryptocurrency. In the fourth question of the interview, Hanyecz's favorite type of pizza was asked. To this question, he said that Supreme pizza is his favorite pizza. He even bought 2 large Supreme pizzas for his children with 10,000 BTC.
One of the questions asked in the interview was whether Hanyecz wanted to buy a breakfast plate at the hotel. Hanyecz responded to this question by saying that he prefers standard breakfast dishes such as eggs, bacon and pancakes instead of pizza for hotel breakfast. He said that the reason why he compared pizza to a breakfast plate was that he made the transaction through his own account and came to the door. He also mentioned that he did not care about how the breakfast came and that he only wanted a certain meal and that Bitcoin is money like other currencies. Finally, he believes that if he eats with Bitcoin, he can live with Bitcoin.
When asked whether he sees cryptocurrencies as his main job, Laszlo Hanyecz said that cryptocurrencies are not his main job, on the contrary, they work as a side project for him. He said he did it for fun and that it wasn't a 9-5 job. He said that he never wanted to be associated with ICO scams, but instead wanted to continue as a hobby. But he still said that Bitcoin payments are accepted at his workplace and that the company has integrated Bitcoin payments into its website. Additionally, his colleagues said that the innovation Hanyecz brought excited many people. He said that he was very happy to combine his hobby with work.
In the interview, Hanyecz said that he does not prefer to deal with any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin and believes that other cryptocurrencies are copies of Bitcoin. He says that in his opinion, 90% of cryptocurrencies are copies of Bitcoin and only their logos have changed.
Hanyecz believes that after accepting payments in Bitcoin at work, it helped that the purchase of pizza was accepted as a means of payment, and his belief that Bitcoin would grow as a means of payment helped. He also said that if he had not come up with the idea, someone else would have benefited from it. He first wrote about how to do mining in this process and then a few months later said he was the first person to start GPU mining. In this way, he said that he spent his Bitcoins through payments.
When asked about Bitcoin pizza payments, Hanyecz said that many people do not want to buy pizza with Bitcoin and although many people try, they will not use Bitcoin because they cannot wait. Hanyecz explained that many people do not wait for transactions in situations such as 12 hours, and thus many people became aware of how the market works.
In the interview, Hanyecz said that he built the Lightning network and that it can be easily used by people in terms of scalability. In other words, according to him, the scenarios of Bitcoins being spent in real life are increasing.
He mentioned that the Lightning Network is not perfect, but the reason why many people prefer Lightning is that they do not want to choose other payment tools. Lightning Network said that Bitcoin should be accepted as a means of payment and people can easily make payments using cryptographic proofs. He said that instead of following the spirit of Bitcoin, he believes that people can easily carry out their transactions without having to trust anyone. Lightning network said that people can easily carry out transactions through privacy and mentioned that companies cannot neglect their own privacy.
In summary, Laszlo Hanyecz, who bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010, gained an unfortunate reputation because the current value of the Bitcoins he paid are expressed in millions of dollars today. However, we should also point out that Jeremy Sturdivant, also known as Jercos, is not as famous as Laszlo Hanyecz, although he received a payment of 10 thousand BTC.
What Is Laszlo Hanyecz Doing Now?
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Hanyecz currently works as an Information Technology specialist at Goruck, a clothing company specializing in backpack manufacturing. Since Laszlo Hanyecz is an internet celebrity, Goruck accepts Bitcoin as a payment method. On the other hand, Hanyecz says that he does not regret buying a pizza with 10 thousand BTC and defends himself by saying "someone would have done it anyway."
What Happened to the 10,000 BTC Paid by Laszlo Hanyecz?
One of the most frequently asked questions is: What happened to the 10,000 Bitcoins that Laszlo Hanyecz paid for pizzas? Sturdivant answered this question in an interview. Sturdivant stated that all 10,000 Bitcoins quickly returned to the economic cycle. Sturdivant stated that he used most of the 10,000 for purchases from the Humble Bundle game distribution platform. Sturdivant, who is currently 29 years old and not well-known in the cryptocurrency industry, works as a product engineer at professional radio equipment manufacturer Inovonics.
