https://interestingengineering.com/b...n-supreme-pies
Laszlo Hanyecz, more famously known as the “Bitcoin pizza guy” has given his first televised interview since his infamy began. Hanyecz has shot to fame as a symbol of everything that is confusing about cryptocurrencies.
The software engineer was an early investor in Bitcoin and like many early adopters believe that bitcoin would eventually take over the regular currency. And what do you do with regular currency? Buy stuff - so that was exactly what Hanyecz did.
Two pizzas for $8000
Back in 2010, Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC. At the time, that seemed like a really good deal as one Bitcoin wasn’t even valued at one U.S penny. However one BTC today is worth about $8000.
So yeah that’s an expensive pizza.
However it gets worse, Hanyecz estimates he probably spent about 100,000 BTC on pizza over the years, hence his fame and appropriate nickname. In the interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, Hanyecz explains his reasoning behind the pizza buying.
Pizza guy helped make bitcoin what it is today
While now it's easy to scoff at the unfortunate guy, what is more, important is that the pizza story is the most well known initial real-world bitcoin transaction. And Hanyecz says that he doesn't regret it.
Despite trying to avoid thinking about just how rich he could be now, he says he is proud to have been a backer of the currency in its early days and that buying the pizza serves as a reminder that the cryptocurrency was originally invented to be used just like that.
He says buying the pizza helped legitimize the cryptocurrency. Back in 2010 buying stuff with Bitcoin wasn’t easy, not only because of its low value - people just didn’t really know what it was.
Can I buy bitcoin pizza today?
Since then the cult of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has grown and it's now possible to buy a lot of real-world stuff with crypto coins. At the end of 2017, when bitcoin was peaking at more than $20,000 a coin many businesses were quickly formed to help investors cash in on their return.
From Middle Eastern real estate to KFC there was virtually nothing bitcoin couldn’t buy. As the value dropped many of these services did too; however, it is still possible to buy online with bitcoin.
Check out 'usethecoin' for a list of sites that let you shop with your crypto coin. To commemorate the historic day May 22 has been dubbed Bitcoin Pizza Day by the crypto community.
Bitcoin is currently enjoying a massive surge with its value increasing 48% in the past 30 days. Analysts are pointing to the ever-escalating US-China trade war as one reason for the upswing.