In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two large Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins, which are today worth more than $114 million. Photo / Getty Images
In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two large Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins, which are today worth more than $114 million. Photo / Getty Images
We all know pizza is one of life's greatest pleasures.
But what if someone told you a lone slice was now worth more than $5 million?
In 2010, a man named Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two large Papa John's pizzas online.
He paid for them using 10,000 bitcoins — the equivalent of around US$40 ($58) at the time — in what is now widely believed to be the world's first bitcoin purchase.
"I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas. like maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day," he wrote in a bitcoin talk forum.
"I like having leftover 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!"
Another forum user took him up on the offer, and a deal was struck: 10,000 bitcoins were sent in exchange for two Papa John's pizzas.
Since then, the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed, meaning the value of those two humble pizzas has increased astronomically.
How much would they be worth now? More than $114 million. Bitcoin is trading at US$7868 ($11,404), down from a high in December of US$18,674.
May 22 has been named Bitcoin Pizza Day in the cryptocurrency community. While the item purchased was relatively insignificant, the transaction itself was marked as revolutionary. With it, the era of bitcoin truly began.
"It wasn't like bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool," Hanyecz told the New York Times in 2013. "No one knew it was going to get so big."
Bitcoin is trading at US$7868 ($11,404), down from a high in December of US$18,674. Photo / Getty Images
Bitcoin has been down close to 40 per cent since the beginning of the year, but a Wall Street Journal report has found companies are paying as much as US$1 million in signing bonuses to secure crypto talent.
At the same time, jobs advertised on LinkedIn with the terms "blockchain", "bitcoin" or "cryptocurrency" have jumped 151 per cent from the start of this year to mid-May compared to the total of 2017.
