The first real-world Bitcoin transaction took place on May 22, 2018. That same transaction was the scene for one of cryptocurrency’s biggest mistakes.

Twelve years ago on May 22, Laszlo Hansyecz (a Florida computer programmer) decided to see if it was possible for digital currency to be used to purchase something.

Because cryptocurrency was still in its early days, no infrastructure was available to allow for transactions with it. The pioneer cryptocurrency was a form of barter.

Hanyecz created a forum thread claiming that he was willing to pay 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. “You can make pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from the delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself,” he outlined.

Soon, Jeremy Sturdivant (from the United Kingdom) accepted the offer. He ordered 2 Domino’s pizzas, paid $25 and asked for them to be delivered to Laszlo Hanyecz, all in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins.

It was done, and Sturdivant from the UK received his 10,000 bitcoins. Sturdivant technically had already made a profit from this interaction at that point. The 10K bitcoins sold at $41 were worth approximately $0.004 on the exchanges. This was four-thousandths (or one cent) at the time.

“I just happened to take a visible step as a part of the whole community’s growing trust in bitcoin, it didn’t feel unique in the sense that if I hadn’t accepted that offer, someone else surely would have… but at the same time I was certainly somewhat aware that this was setting a precedent for casual trade with bitcoin,” Sturdivant later said.

However, he did not retain his bitcoins. Jeremy Sturdivant sold all of his 10,000 bitcoins for a 10x gain at $400 shortly after.

7.1 Million More Expensive

From those heady days to the moment of the initial real-world Bitcoin purchase, the market value for the dominant cryptocurrency, and in fact the entire drypto landscape has drastically changed.

It’s perhaps bittersweet that the pizza Laszlo Hanyecz bought for 10,000 bitcoins in May 2010 would have been worth $10,000 just nine months after the deal.

It would be worth $294million today at the $29.400 bitcoin price at press time. That’s 7.1 million times more than the leading crypto’s price twelve years ago, when a single bitcoin was worth around $0.004.

“Somebody had to start it all”, says Laszlo today when asked if he has any regrets about not keeping that bitcoin for himself, even for just a little while longer. “I am poor now”, the man wrote on his official Twitter (NYSE:) account. But even though he didn’t become a crypto-millionaire, Laszlo Hanyecz made history.

What You Need to Care About

Bitcoin Pizza Day is a well-known tradition in the cryptocurrency community. Many crypto exchanges celebrate the event with giveaways and hangouts.

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