Billion dollar pizza? Bitcoin soars on key anniversary of crypto’s growth

FILE - A neon sign that alerts customers that the business accepts bitcoin as payment, hangs in the window of Healthy Harvest Indoor Gardening in Hillsboro, Ore., on Feb. 7, 2018. Photo by Gillian Flaccus /AP

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It’s not an official holiday — yet — but for many cryptocurrency enthusiasts “Bitcoin Pizza Day” is still special. Thursday marks the 15th anniversary of the first known use of cryptocurrency to buy real-world goods.

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The 10,000 bitcoin that software developer Laszlo Hanyecz paid for two Papa John’s pizzas delivered to his Florida home on May 22, 2010, were worth about $41 at the time. Today they’re worth $1.1 billion, as bitcoin hits record high prices.

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Several cryptocurrency companies are announcing promotions and other celebrations to mark Bitcoin Pizza Day. Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it’s giving away pizzas to more than 2,000 people at gatherings held around the world.

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Here’s the backstory of Bitcoin Pizza Day:

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Humble Beginnings

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The first bitcoin was created in early 2009 by the digital currency’s still unknown creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. It started as a passion project for libertarian-minded computer nerds who wanted to create a digital payment system that didn’t rely on a third party _ like a government or financial institution — for transactions.

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Hanyecz was an early enthusiast and became active on an early bitcoin internet message board, offering technical advice on how to “mine” bitcoin more effectively.

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Central to bitcoin’s technology is the process through which transactions are verified and then recorded on what’s known as the blockchain. Computers connected to the bitcoin network race to solve complex mathematical calculations that verify the transactions, with the winner earning newly minted bitcoins as a reward in a process known as mining.

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In the early days, enthusiasts could mine bitcoin through their home computers and Hanyecz accumulated thousands of the new digital asset. Nowadays, mining bitcoin has become a highly competitive field with multi-billion-dollar companies using specialized computers in entire data centers to acquire new bitcoins.

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‘No weird fish topping’

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In the early days, no one quite knew what to do with the bitcoin they were mining. On May 18, 2010, Hanyecz tried an experiment and posted a message offering 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.

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“I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.. just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that,” Hanyecz wrote.

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Three days later, Hanyecz wondered if he needed to up the price.

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“So nobody wants to buy me pizza? Is the bitcoin amount I’m offering too low?” he wrote.

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But the next day, Hanyecz said he’d successfully traded his bitcoin for pizza. Another bitcoin enthusiast from California had paid for the Papa John’s pizza in exchange for the cryptocurrency, according to a book about bitcoin’s early history, “Digital Gold.”