Who Pushed Bitcoin from a "Pizza Voucher" to the Top of the Global Asset Today?

This list evaluates their actual contributions to BTC's mainstream adoption from multiple core dimensions, and visually presents the far-reaching impact of each driver through a “star rating”.

Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Editor: TB, ChainCatcher

Special note: This list is based on subjective evaluation of public information and is intended for fun discussion. It does not constitute investment advice or industry certification. Please refer to it rationally and read it easily. If you have any questions or clues, please contact us and we will continue to update.

Since Laszlo used 10,000 bitcoins to buy two pizzas on May 22, 2010, Bitcoin has grown from an experimental product for programming enthusiasts to a “major asset class” valued by global institutions, sovereign funds and even countries. Behind this is the continuous promotion of a group of key figures and institutions - some have been preaching for more than ten years, and some have introduced hundreds of billions of capital into BTC.

As Pizza Day approaches, we review the key drivers of Bitcoin’s 16-year rise. This list evaluates their actual contributions to BTC’s mainstream adoption from multiple core dimensions, and visually presents the far-reaching impact of each driver through a “star rating”.

The evaluation dimensions include:

Let us review together, who pushed Bitcoin from a "pizza voucher" to the top of the global asset today?

Protocol Blacksmith

Origin coordinates: Satoshi Nakamoto

The undisputed "creator", the one who planted the seeds of technology and ideas, directly entered the "Hall of Fame". Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.1 million bitcoins, accounting for about 5% of the total supply. His "sleeping" assets provide a symbol of stability for the market. He spread the concept of Bitcoin through the cryptography mailing list in the early days and retired after 2010.

Casey Rodarmor (Ordinals Protocol inventor)

Casey Rodarmor released the Ordinals protocol in early 2023, allowing users to engrave text, pictures and other data on the Bitcoin chain, which also led to the birth of new asset standards such as BRC-20, revitalizing the Bitcoin ecosystem. Although this has caused great controversy in the Bitcoin community, and some core developers believe that it "pollutes" the block space, it is undeniable that Ordinals broke the single narrative of Bitcoin and attracted the attention of a large number of developers, artists and capital.

Luke Dashjr ( early BTC core developer )

Luke Dashjr is one of the earliest BTC core developers and is still active. He has been contributing to the Bitcoin Core code since 2011, adding support for BIP 22 and 23 protocols and maintaining the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal section on GitHub. He released BFG Miner in 2014, which has become one of the most widely used implementations of Bitcoin mining.

Adam Back (Blockstream Co-founder & CEO)

Adam Back is one of the few people who was named and paid tribute to in the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper. Hashcash, which he invented, is used in Bitcoin's proof-of-work mechanism and has become one of the technical sources of the BTC consensus mechanism. He also promoted the development of key expansion and privacy tools such as Liquid sidechain and Lightning Network at Blockstream.

Roger Ver (Founder of Bitcoin.com)

Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", was the most radical evangelist and investor in Bitcoin in its early days, and made significant contributions to its global popularity and the spread of technical concepts. In 2017, he supported the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork and opposed Bitcoin Core's small block strategy, which caused the community to split and damaged his reputation.

Institutional Evangelist & Wall Street Guide

Michael Saylor (Strategy Co-founder)

Since 2020, Michael Saylor has led Strategy to purchase a total of approximately 560,000 bitcoins (approximately 2.6% of the total supply), driving a wave of corporate investment, and his Bitcoin strategy has also caused the company's stock price to soar. Through interviews, Twitter (X) and crypto event summits, Saylor has become a global evangelist for Bitcoin, attracting institutional investors.

Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock)

Fink called Bitcoin a "money laundering tool" in 2017, but began to take a sharp turn and embrace Bitcoin ETFs in 2023. BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) was approved in 2024 and became the fastest-growing ETF in history, managing more than $63.7 billion in assets, attracting traditional investors and pushing the price of Bitcoin above $100,000.

Barry Silbert (Founder of DCG)

Grayscale, owned by Barry Silbert, was once the most important channel for promoting institutional compliance in holding currency. In 2013, he launched Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to provide institutions and