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Bitcoin Stories: The Million-Dollar Pizza (10,000 Bitcoins in 2010)
Bitcoin Stories: The Million-Dollar Pizza
One of the more famous Bitcoin stories is about one of the earliest real world purchases made with Bitcoins in 2010. A Bitcoin Forum user named Laszlo offered to pay 10,000 BTC for a pizza. Here’s his original offer from May 18, 2010:
I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later. You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a 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, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy!
I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.. just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that. I also like regular cheese pizzas which may be cheaper to prepare or otherwise acquire.
If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal.
Thanks,
Laszlo
Four days later, Laszlo proudly reported that he had successfully traded 10,000 Bitcoins for pizza, which was about $25 at the time. Not a bad price but pretty slow delivery time.
Just under three years later, the value of Bitcoins has soared to $100 per BTC, making that pizza worth over $1 million!
Here is a photo of the actual million-dollar pizza, and presumably Laszlo’s son going after a slice.
That forum thread is still active, with the latest post today reading simply:
“Wow. I wish I had 10,000 bitcoins now.”
Video: Max Keiser Predicts Bitcoin Market Growth to $1 Million Per BTC
Bitcoin Market Poised to Boom to $1 Million Per BTC
In the video below, Infowars talk show host Alex Jones talks with former stock trader and television host Max Keiser about the roller coaster Bitcoin market and the slowly disintegrating global economy.
Max Keiser explains how the value of Bitcoin could easily grow to $1 million per Bitcoin, discusses why the Federal Reserve hates it, and calls Bitcoin the “Cyber-Christ.”
Jones presses Keiser to admit he’s involved in the creation of Bitcoin.
Max Keiser photo by Stacy Herbert used under Creative Commons license.
Can Bitcoin Be Trusted as the Global Economy’s Safe Haven?
Can Bitcoin Decentralize Trust?
In the wake of the financial crisis in Cyprus, interest in Bitcoins has soared, making Bitcoin a currency with $1 billion USD in market value. But is Bitcoin the new safe haven for the struggling global economy?
Bloomberg BusinessWeek contributor Paul Ford points to decentralizing trust as the key to Bitcoin’s growth in value and adoption.
I’m increasingly convinced there’s one thing that Bitcoins do that’s genuinely interesting. They decentralize trust. Trust is hard to earn; verifying transactions is a brutal problem, which is why PayPal locks down your account when there’s too much money flowing into it. Creating trust is traditionally the work of federal governments and branding agencies. Trust is also an easy thing to squander. Just close a beloved service, à la Google Reader. Or allow your banks to fail, causing an entire country to suddenly realize that the value of their deposits, the fundamental integrity of their financial selves, was arbitrary all along.
Along comes Bitcoin, a currency in which every transaction is stored by the entire network and every coin has its own story. There’s nothing to trust but math. Suddenly an idea that sounded terrible—a totally decentralized currency without a central authority, where semi-anonymous parties exchange meaningless tokens—becomes almost comforting, a source of power and authority.
That’s where Bitcoin thrives: where people would prefer to throw in their lot with anonymous strangers instead of the world economy. It’s gold-bug thinking reinvented for an age of fluid transparency and instantaneous transactions. And as such it’s an excellent indicator of anxiety. Where you see Bitcoins in action you find a weird and heady mix of speculative angst, a fear of being left behind, and people who appear to have lost faith in institutions, who feel most left behind. These are people who’ll trade in purely arbitrary tokens, willing to forgo the comfort of banking systems for the weight of mathematics and the Internet behind it.
Bitcoin image by zcopley used under Creative Commons license.
Welcome to On Bitcoin | Bitcoin News
On Bitcoin | Bitcoin News
“Bitcoin may be the global economy’s last safe haven” – Bloomberg BusinessWeek
“Three eras of currency:
Commodity based, e.g. Gold
Politically based, e.g. Dollar
Math based, e.g. Bitcoin”
– Chris Dixon, venture capitalist with Andreesson Horowitz and serial entrepreneur
Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital currency that has the potential to revolutionize global commerce.
Established in 2009, this alternate currency is worth over $1 billion and 1 BTC trades for $100 USD as of April 2013. Below is a snapshot of the value of 1 BTC over time.
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