Today, May 23, 2023, is the famous Bitcoin Pizza Festival in the currency circle. This festival, which is well-known to almost everyone in the currency circle, commemorates the legendary transaction of "exchanging 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas" 13 years ago. At that time, 10,000 Bitcoins were only worth less than 40 US dollars, but today, the "cost" of these two pizzas has reached nearly 300 million US dollars. This is calculated against the background of the recent plunge of Bitcoin and the price has almost halved. If calculated based on the 21-year high, it is US$690 million.
On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer from Florida, USA, published a post on the Bitcointalk forum. The content is roughly that he wants 2 large pizzas and hopes to exchange them for 10,000 Bitcoins. Pizza can be store-bought or homemade.
There were very few responses after this post was posted, and it was not until May 22, four days later, that the transaction was finally completed. Hanyecz posted a post that day showing off the success of the transaction: "I just want to tell everyone that I successfully exchanged 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas, thank you jercos (screen name)."
The pizza provider with the online name jercos, and the final recipient of the 10,000 bitcoins, was Jeremy Sturdivant, a 19-year-old Californian boy. In the eyes of many people, Stur divant is undoubtedly lucky, because if calculated at the current currency value, this transaction should have given him a huge wealth that many people could not even dream of. In other words, even though he delivered two pizzas, he received "the biggest pie from the sky."
However, the real situation is far from being as beautiful as people think.
Throw away the "biggest pie from the sky"...
In fact, shortly after Stur Divant received the 10,000 Bitcoins, it chose to cash out all of them after Bitcoin rose slightly. Stur Divant and his girlfriend used the money to take a quick trip.
Now, 13 years have passed, and the 19-year-old young man has now reached his thirties. With another "Pizza Festival", this one of the protagonists of this festival also accepted the latest interview with the media two years ago.
Stur Divant admitted that it was "definitely" a big regret not to leave any Bitcoin, but he said that at the time he was just thinking about "facilitating the transaction" and that he was more concerned about how to deliver the pizza to Laszlo Hanyecz. . “I had no idea at the time how high Bitcoin would go,” Sturdivant said. "Looking back now, just the thought of owning that many Bitcoins was pretty crazy. Of course, it wasn't noticeable at the time because Bitcoin was just getting started."
He added, “While I cannot be said to be solely responsible for the success of Bitcoin, I am still proud to have played a role in helping Bitcoin transform from an interesting conceptual project into a global phenomenon.”
Stur Divant also said in an interview with the media in 2018, “If I had regarded Bitcoin as an investment, I might have held it for a longer time. When the famous pizza transaction occurred, I never thought of the same amount. Bitcoin will have the same purchasing power as real estate."
Like Stur Divant, Hanyecz, another person involved in the "pizza incident", also said in a recent interview that he did not regret his decision to buy the most expensive pizza in history.
“Because to me it’s free pizza,” he told Bitcoin Magazine in 2019. As the earliest miner to use GPU mining, for Hanyecz who was producing (7.3601, 0.00, 0.00%) thousands of Bitcoins per day at that time, 10,000 was really nothing at that time. He even wrote a program early on that allowed fans to mine using their computer’s graphics card.
Hanyecz said, "I think it's a great thing that I can participate in the early history of Bitcoin in this way. I think what I do is helpful. But I think if it wasn't me, someone else would do it. Maybe it won’t be pizza.”
Reposted from the original report link: https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/usstock/c/2021-05-25/doc-ikmxzfmm4563935.shtml (Sina Finance Comprehensive)
