Every year on May 22, the crypto community celebrates "Pizza Day." But how are cryptocurrency and pizza—two completely different things—related? This article explains Pizza Day, an important anniversary in the history of cryptocurrency.
The crypto community commemorates Pizza Day because it was the first time material goods were traded for digital currency. Bitcoin was conceived in 2008, and the bitcoin blockchain came to fruition in 2009. The first time Bitcoin was used to acquire real-world goods—two large Papa John's pizzas—occurred on May 22, 2010.
The person who actually bought the pizzas with Bitcoin was Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer living in the United States. Hanyecz posted to an internet Bitcoin forum asking if anyone was willing to exchange 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. In the pioneering days of Bitcoin, online forums were important sites for exchanging crypto information. Hanyecz thought that if he made the request there, someone might answer it.
It was Jeremy Sturdivant who answered that request. Sturdivant was a student living in London at the time and ordered pizzas for Hanyecz from a store he found online. Of course, the order was placed with a credit card, but Hanyecz paid Sturdivant in Bitcoin, which is why this day is considered the "first day a real-world item was bought with Bitcoin" (this was before the world's first Bitcoin exchange appeared).
At the time Hanyecz bought his pizzas, the price of Bitcoin was approximately $0.0041. Thus, 10,000 BTC was worth approximately $41, a reasonable price for two pizzas.
On May 17, 2023, when this article was written, 1 Bitcoin was worth about $27,000. Meaning 10,000 Bitcoin would be worth about $270 million today. That's an astonishing sum of money in exchange for an extraordinary quantity of pizzas!
The TradingView chart below shows that the price of Bitcoin has been rising quite rapidly, especially since 2020.
Crypto assets are still commonly held for investment purposes, but Bitcoin has not yet achieved widespread acceptance as a payment option for everyday goods and services. Nevertheless, Bitcoin payments are gradually being accepted at an increasing number of stores, including the electronics retailer Bic Camera, which accepts Bitcoin payments.
There are several factors that could prevent the proliferation of crypto payments, one of which being the uncertain legal status of cryptocurrency. However, there are already countries that are trying to overcome this by designating Bitcoin as legal currency. El Salvador and the Central African Republic are two countries that have successfully recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. While the introduction of Bitcoin has not been entirely successful in either country, it paves the way for similar moves to be made in more economically stable regions. Once this happens, we will be one step closer to an era in which buying things with crypto will become commonplace.