Laszlo Hanyecz's Bitcoin Pizza Day: The Most Expensive Food Purchase in Human History

On May 22, 2010, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz made what is now considered the most expensive food purchase in history: two large Papa John's pizzas.

On May 22, 2010, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz made what is now considered the most expensive food purchase in human history: two large Papa John's pizzas. The bill was $25. So why is this considered the most expensive food purchase in history? Because Laszlo paid for the purchase with bitcoin.

A single bitcoin today would buy roughly 9,250 pizzas. But obviously, bitcoin in 2010 was much less valuable. That is why Laszlo used 10 THOUSAND bitcoins to pay for his two pizzas.

Today, those same 10,000 bitcoins would be worth $1.113 billion. It was the first time Bitcoin had ever been exchanged for a tangible good or service. The purchase has become so famous… or infamous… that May 22 has come to be known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day." I doubt Laszlo Hanyecz celebrates this day.

And as it turns out, 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas is just a SLICE of the story. Laszlo actually spent more like 100,000 bitcoin on various goods around 2010…

The First Real-World Bitcoin Transaction

In May 2010, bitcoin was barely a year old and worth fractions of a penny. Hanyecz's 10,000 BTC pizza offer was posted to the Bitcoin Talk forum:

"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."

A fellow enthusiast saw the challenge. Using his phone and a credit card, two Papa John's pizzas were ordered and delivered to Laszlo's address. Laszlo then fulfilled his side of the bargain by transferring 10,000 bitcoin to the fellow enthusiast. Those 10,000 bitcoin were worth around $40 at the time. So, in other words, the other guy actually made a $15 profit ON TOP of receiving 10,000 bitcoin :0

A Pioneer Behind the Scenes

Long before the $1.1 billion headline, Hanyecz had already etched his name into Bitcoin history, not as a spender, but as a builder.

In April 2010, just days after joining the Bitcoin Talk forum founded by Satoshi Nakamoto himself, Hanyecz created the first Mac OS Bitcoin client, enabling Apple users to participate in the new network. At the time, Bitcoin software only ran on Windows and Linux.

Even more consequentially, Hanyecz discovered that Bitcoin could be mined using graphics processing units (GPUs) instead of CPUs. This breakthrough turbocharged Bitcoin's hashrate and kicked off the first major shift toward industrialised mining. It also earned him a personal message from Satoshi, who warned that GPU mining might centralise Bitcoin too early:

"A big attraction to new users is that anyone with a computer can generate some free coins… I don't want to hasten the day when only high-end GPU setups can mine."

Demonstrating Bitcoin's IRL Value

In a 2019 "60 Minutes" interview with Anderson Cooper, Laszlo explained his motives at the time:

"I thought it would be really cool if he could say 'hey, I just traded this open-source internet money for a real-world good.' And I thought, 'what better thing than food?' Food is a basic necessity and every geek understands pizza."

"People laugh at that, but at the time it wasn't worth anything."

Laszlo seemed at peace with his decision when talking to Anderson. But keep in mind, at that time (2019), his bitcoin pizza mistake was worth "just" $80 million. I'd love for Anderson to reinterview Laszlo today, now that the mistake is worth north of $1.1 billion.

It Gets Worse

As it turns out, those 10,000 bitcoins were just a SLICE of the digital currency Laszlo Hanyecz spent during