The crypto-community celebrates the 8th anniversary of the first commercial transaction in which Bitcoin was used as a real-world currency to pay for an item.
Two Pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins
On 17 May 2010, computer programmer Laszlo Hanyecz posted on the Internet a request to buy a pizza paying with bitcoins. A few days later, Hanyecz was successful. He bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins from Jeremy Sturdivant, whose username was “jercos.” On May 22, 2010, Hanyecz posted on Bitcointalk forum,
“I just want to report that I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza. Thanks, jercos!”
As of this writing, 10,000 bitcoins equals USD $82,000,000. But when Hanyecz performed this transaction, he may have been unaware of its significance.
Since then, Bitcoin has faced innumerable challenges. Governments and influential financial leaders have attacked Bitcoin relentlessly throughout its existence.
Scandals involving nefarious people using Bitcoin have often occupied the world press. Moreover, technical issues, including scalability and expensive transaction fees, have led the crypto community into a terrible civil war.
However, Bitcoin has shown great resiliency and has successfully confronted all these challenges. Therefore, it remains the most successful ever currency.
For example, new technological improvements such as SegWit, Lightning Network, and Atomic Multi-Path Payments over Lightning, and now Bitcoin Core 0.16.0, are solving Bitcoin’s scalability and transaction fee issues.
In this regard, Hanyecz made another spectacular contribution to the development of the cryptocurrency by buying a pizza again on February 25, 2018. However, this time, he performed the transaction via Lightning Network. Hanyecz, reported this transaction as follows:
I paid bitcoin using the lightning network, and he arranged for a pizza to be delivered to me. In this trade, my friend is just a middleman that is taking the risk of accepting lightning payments, but it demonstrates the basic premise of how this works for everyday transactions. It could just as well be the pizza shop accepting the payment directly with their own lightning node.
The Transaction That Changed the World
Indeed, the first-ever Bitcoin transaction changed the world of finances. Last year Bitcoin, escorted by futures trading contracts, entered into the circle of mainstream finance. This milestone event was formalized by the CBOE Global Markets’ launch of Bitcoin futures contracts, on December 10, 2017, easing the way to the cryptocurrency market for institutional investors’ trillions of dollars.
As a result, big banks and financial institutions are now aiming to trade Bitcoin. For example, according to Amber Baldet, former J.P Morgan executive, big banks will soon start trading cryptocurrencies. In a recent interview with CNBC, Baldet said, “I think it is coming sooner than people probably think.”
Goldman Sachs might also be on the path of start trading Bitcoin. The New York Times writes:
But Goldman Sachs, perhaps the most storied name in finance, is bucking the risks and moving ahead with plans to set up what appears to be the first Bitcoin trading operation at a Wall Street bank.
On the other hand, Bitcoin exchanges, such as Coinbase and Ivy Koin are moving to obtain bank licenses. Reportedly, Coinbase is already introducing over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trading services.
Today, the world celebrates the anniversary of Hanyecz’s first Bitcoin transaction. The crypto community remains optimistic that Bitcoin will continue demonstrating resiliency, by outperforming all fiat currencies, even if articles with titles such as “Bitcoin is dead” will keep coming.
How do you think buying two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins has impacted the development of cryptocurrencies? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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