Hanyecz is known as the first person to use bitcoin in a commercial transaction. On May 22, 2010, when bitcoin was a little over a year old, he bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. The day is now known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day." With one bitcoin now worth $9,500, this is apparently a joke and Hanyecz's $45 million pizzas are the punchline.
A fellow bitcoin enthusiast named Jeremy, who went by the online pseudonym "Jercos," agreed to make the purchase on Hanyecz's behalf. Hanyecz transferred the 10,000 bitcoins to Jercos, who used them to buy two pizzas from a local Papa John's. The pizzas were then delivered to Hanyecz's house, and the first-ever real-world transaction using bitcoin was complete.
At the time, 10,000 bitcoins were worth just a few dollars. Hanyecz has since said that he didn't think much of the transaction and that he just wanted to see if he could actually use his bitcoins to buy something tangible. But as the value of bitcoin began to soar, the significance of his purchase became clear.
The joke is also a parable, illustrating the competition and interplay between three potential uses of bitcoin. The first is speculation. Bitcoin's nosebleed-inducing decade of upward price movement is what drives CNBC headlines and motivates participation: People see it as a way to get rich. "Bitcoin is a way to harness greed," said Hanyecz in a recent interview from his home in Jacksonville, Fla. It's greed that underpins the delicate balance of incentives that keeps bitcoin running.
Hanyecz was an early adopter of bitcoin, having started mining the cryptocurrency in 2009. By the time of his pizza purchase, he had amassed a significant amount of bitcoins, but with no real-world use case for the currency, they were essentially worthless. Hanyecz saw an opportunity to change that. He offered 10,000 bitcoins to anyone who would order him a pizza and have it delivered to his house.
A fellow bitcoin enthusiast named
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