A day that saw the news of the disappearance of Penny, Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, reached a new summit while the enthusiasts celebrated the anniversary of the very first real purchase using the virtual call: pizza.
Thursday marked the 15th anniversary of “Bitcoin Pizza Day” when the developer of Laszlo Hanyecz software paid two pizzas of Papa John delivered to his house in Florida with 10,000 Bitcoin.
The franchise pies, worth around $ 42 at the time, exchanged a cache of the nascent currency worth $ 1.1 billion today.
Bitcoin was negotiated at around $ 111,000 Thursday morning – a new record. This price gives it a market capitalization of more than 2 billions of dollars, or almost the same as Amazon.
Many cryptocurrency companies have organized promotions and other celebrations to mark Bitcoin Pizza Day. Bitget, an exchange of cryptocurrency, announced that it gave pizzas to more than 2,000 people during rallies organized worldwide.
The first Bitcoin was created in early 2009 by the creator still unknown to digital currency, Satoshi Nakamoto. It started as a passionate project for IT breaks with a libertarian spirit that wanted to create a digital payment system that was not based on a third party – like a government or a financial institution – for transactions.
Hanyecz was an early enthusiast and became active on a first Babillard Internet Bitcoin, offering technical advice on how to “mine” bitcoin more effectively.
The transactions verification process is at the heart of Bitcoin technology, then recorded on what is called the blockchain. Computers connected to the Bitcoin network breed to resolve complex mathematical calculations that check transactions, the winner winning newly created bitcoins as a reward in a process called mining.
At first, enthusiasts could exploit Bitcoin through their domestic computers and Hanyecz accumulated thousands of new digital assets. Nowadays, Mining Bitcoin has become a very competitive field with companies of several billion dollars using computers specializing in whole data centers to acquire new bitcoins.
At first, no one knew what to do with the bitcoin they were exploiting. On May 18, 2010, Hanyecz tried an experience and published a message offering 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.
“I like things like onions, peppers, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.
Three days later, Hanyecz wondered if he needed to increase the price.
“So nobody wants to buy me pizza?” The amount of bitcoin that I offer too low? ” He wrote.
But the next day, Hanyecz said he had managed to exchange his bitcoin for pizza. Another California bitcoin enthusiast had paid pizza of Papa John in exchange for cryptocurrency, according to a book on the first story of Bitcoin, “Digital Gold”.
“A big step has been crossed,” said another Bitcoin enthusiast for the Babillard message congratulating Hanyecz.
In February 2014, Bitcoin merchant at around $ 600, Hanyecz was amazed at what digital currency had become.
“I mean people can say that I am stupid, but it was a lot at the time,” wrote Hanyecz on the Babillard Bitcoin. “I don’t think anyone could have known that it would take off like that.”
Five years later, when Bitcoin was exchanging up to $ 11,000, Hanyecz thought about what the purchase of this first pizza meant for Bitcoin.
“It made it real for some people, I mean that it has certainly done for me,” said Hanyecz on the television show “60 minutes”.
