Bitcoin Pizza Day is probably the famous commemoration day in the history of bitcoin. This points to the day BTC was first used to buy real-world products on May 22, 2010.
The transaction occurred after Laszlo Hanyecz posted on the BitcoinTalk forum – the most active medium of communication about bitcoin at the time:
“I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for some pizza.. maybe 2 big ones, so I have some left over for the next day. I like to leave the pizza to nibble on later. You can make the pizza yourself and have it at my house.” Can bring or order for me from a delivery place, but my goal is to get food delivered in exchange for bitcoin where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, order a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something love to do, they bring you something to eat and you are happy!”
While the amount of bitcoins paid for those two simple pizzas may seem mind-blowing today, times were different.
“So no one wants to buy me pizza? What bitcoin amount am I paying too little?,” Hanyk posted three days later as not a single bitcoin user had yet accepted his offer.
Actually, many people found this offer a bit strange. One forum user highlighted that Hanyecz could only sell 10,000 BTC for around $41 in exchange for food – which he could have ordered directly and paid with dollars as any other pizza lover would probably do. Another user asked, ‘Are you feeling hungry or do you just like pizza?
“I think it would be interesting if I could say that I paid for the pizza in bitcoin,” replied Heinz.
The proposal was eventually taken up by Jeremy “Jercos” Sturdivant, and Hanyez’s strange move would become gunpowder years later to promote the HODL narrative to a whole crowd of bitcoin users – the idea of never selling one’s bitcoins. Frankly, spending what would be $300 million today on two pizzas might sound silly. However, not only was it not clear whether bitcoin would be as popular as it is today, but it was also that Haneze realized Satoshi Nakamoto’s primary goal with his invention.
Bitcoin: money out of government control
“Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system” – thus titled Nakamoto in his research paper describing the design of bitcoin – is the fruit of decades of research.
Through cryptography, proof-of-work (PoW), a blockchain, and a network of interconnected computers, the inventor was able to port peer-to-peer (P2P) money – cash – to the digital realm, a feat that had until then been impossible. Was.
While many people today enjoy adopting and promoting the HODL ethos, not only was bitcoin created as money, but it was designed as one, allowing its holders the option to spend without permission. was providing. In other words, Nakamoto made money in the digital economy without permission.
Whereas a traditional, physical cash transaction requires only those sending and receiving money to be involved, digital trades historically involved intermediaries. Think credit card transactions or bank transfers; In both cases, there are numerous entities involved in ensuring that the sender’s balance is checked, the money is moved, and the receiver’s balance is updated. With bitcoin, all of this can now be done just like cash – truly P2P.
The truncation of centralized authorities in the middle of payments not only allows for greater transactional privacy (think again about physical cash transactions as opposed to credit card swipes), but also allows for greater freedom in money transmission. While censoring transactions is an edge case in stable countries such as the US, a large proportion of the world’s population lives under more authoritarian regimes and do not share the same fate. As a result, even the simplest transactions risk being negated – and may even result in personal loss to the parties to the transaction.
While saving in bitcoin can significantly increase wealth over the long term through the mindset of stashing one’s coins, it is arguably through the technology’s empowerment of oppressed communities that its true value proposition shines through – some privileges. The received Western societies can often forget.
