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Topic: Did Laszlo Hanyecz see it as 10,000 BTC or as $41? (Read 569 times)

legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 2017
I think he saw it as ‘I ran this program on my computer for a couple days and got a couple of free pizzas, cool.’

When I first started mining BTC, that’s how I thought. I’d let my computer run for a week and then I’d get an ounce of silver in the mail. It was amazing. I didn’t think of it as a $ amount or a BTC amount. I thought of it as X amount of work to get Y. I’m hindsight, I should have obviously coveted BTC like it was my next breath.

This is the logical thing to do. There is a lot of repetition on the forum about 1BTC= 1BTC which is nonsense because it is either a tautology that does not contribute anything or it is simply false because of the purchasing power.

The purchasing power of 10,000BTC at that time was enough for two pizzas, period. At that time Lazlo would see it as $41 or as two pizzas but he sure wouldn't see it as $250M which is the purchasing power they have now.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 663
I think he saw it as ‘I ran this program on my computer for a couple days and got a couple of free pizzas, cool.’
Yep, that's normal and most people prefer to spend their first salary or first money they make just to celebrate their day. Many people are talking about Laszlo had spent his 10,000 BTC only to bought 2 pizzas, but they forgot if they don't know how many BTC Laszlo had at that time.

I believe Laszlo is holding more than 10,000 BTC because I don't think anyone will use all of their money for unnecessary thing.
legendary
Activity: 3220
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www.Crypto.Games: Multiple coins, multiple games
Yes but you get my point right? If I was a pizza baker and someone called me at that time asking whether it is ok to pay me with some unspent outputs on the Bitcoin blockchain Cheesy lol, I would have probably said f*** off! It's a completely different story if the person would have obviously had some technical background, but without discrediting the pizza baker,  the chance that the guy had any idea whatsoever in 2010 or even googled it before is very close to zero. I would think that someone is making fun of me. Now there is a little possibility that the pizza guy is a risk-taking guy and thought like, who cares why not?

But as you said, they must have also taken the time to set up a wallet for him. I don't know much about the background though, who knows maybe the pizza guy was already informed and actually offered to take Bitcoin. Whatever the true background is, it will remain one of the key stories in the history of Bitcoin forever.

Of course. It's totally weird to see someone accept BTC as payment method, back at the time when almost nobody knew about it. The pizza guy would've rejected Mr. Hanyecz's Bitcoin payment outright. He was a true believer of BTC to have received the payment without remorse. Maybe the pizza guy is now a wealthy person? That is assuming he held onto the 10k BTC paid by Mr. Hanyecz up to this point.

Anyways, you can see that BTC was really put up to good use back in its early days. Now there are many merchants accepting it as payment method for goods and services. What you need to ask yourself is if market price matters when spending your BTC? If you use BTC as digital cash, that won't be a concern for you. But if you rely on BTC as an investment, that's another story. At least we know BTC won't be going anywhere thanks to its decentralized and censorship-resistant design. Just my opinion Smiley
legendary
Activity: 2044
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Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.
What Laszlo did will remain forever in the history of bitcoin but of course he had to look also at the USD value because, whether we like it or not, we need a reference to decide the value of a certain item. He could've offered 5,000 BTC for those 2 pizzas but then who and why would someone have accepted? And let's not forget that he just wanted to prove that you could use bitcoin to buy something real, just like you'd do with cash, so I don't think that relevant at all at the end.
Yes, because if not because of him, I think BTC will struggle to be adopted. He did check the value of BTC first. The owner of those pizza checked it as well to be sure that the deal is fine and the pizza owner won't lose. 10k BTC or 20.50 USD for 2 boxes of pizza is still a great deal that time so I am sure any pizza owner will bite it as long as they know or laszlo himself educate them if where they can trade the Bitcoin because it wasn't that famous that time.

BTC value is measured on USD or other local currencies so those who engage in Bitcoin will see or total the number of Bitcoins they have to their local currency unless if local currencies will be gone one day and will be replaced by just Bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 1008
Merit: 366
It was a sacrifice for the greater good. He was one of the early adopter of BTC. What he has done for us and for the world is not comparable. Why would he regret? For using up 10K BTC? Look at Bitcoin now. Top 1! This is his achievement, as he has paved the path for us, and we are still walking on it.
How much can you ask for in life rather than watching your dreams come true? I would feel bad, no doubt, but the joy to see what you have worked so hard becoming true is nothing compared to that sadness.
History isn't made by doing small things. You need to push your limits. Now, it may seem a huge amount for those 2 pizza. But the value we see for Bitcoin, today, has to do something with that event. So it's a win-win situation, no doubt.
donator
Activity: 4760
Merit: 4323
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
I think he saw it as ‘I ran this program on my computer for a couple days and got a couple of free pizzas, cool.’

When I first started mining BTC, that’s how I thought. I’d let my computer run for a week and then I’d get an ounce of silver in the mail. It was amazing. I didn’t think of it as a $ amount or a BTC amount. I thought of it as X amount of work to get Y. I’m hindsight, I should have obviously coveted BTC like it was my next breath.
hero member
Activity: 1890
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Defend Bitcoin and its PoW: bitcoincleanup.com
Yes he certainly saw it in fiat value, but what I still find interesting is that he actually found a pizzeria that took the Bitcoin as a form of payment. Imagine you would call your pizza guy in 2010, nobody knows anything about Bitcoin and you tell the pizza guy that you are paying with "Bitcoin". Unless they know each other, which pizza guy would agree to take Bitcoin? He must have known at least a little bit about it or how would I even know what this Bitcoin is, what it is worth, where I can use it or trade it. I guess my Italian restaurant around the corner would ask me if I am joking (at least back at the time).

But looking back doesn't make too much sense. For entertainment reasons, yes, but I know quite some people who sold way too early. I am sure there are many people here on this forum who sold way below the ATH we saw in 2021. It's not necessarily about selling 100% of your holdings, but even parts of it would hurt. Resisting to sell is tough when you see those amazing numbers during those bull runs.

I was asking myself about that too. How would someone accept BTC as payment method at a time it was only known by a select few? The pizza guy must've truly believed in BTC, especially when many thought it was a fad or something temporary that would quickly fade away into oblivion. Anyways, it was brave enough for Mr. Hanyecz to spend a hefty sum of BTC on two pizzas even if that wasn't much in Fiat terms at the time of purchase. If he wanted to be rich, he would've held his coins until today. At current market prices, 10k BTC would be equal to $300,000,000. That's insane!

At least, BTC was put to good use (which is digital cash). No matter its price, Bitcoin will always be there to bring you true financial freedom. Just my thoughts Grin

Yes but you get my point right? If I was a pizza baker and someone called me at that time asking whether it is ok to pay me with some unspent outputs on the Bitcoin blockchain Cheesy lol, I would have probably said f*** off! It's a completely different story if the person would have obviously had some technical background, but without discrediting the pizza baker,  the chance that the guy had any idea whatsoever in 2010 or even googled it before is very close to zero. I would think that someone is making fun of me. Now there is a little possibility that the pizza guy is a risk-taking guy and thought like, who cares why not?

But as you said, they must have also taken the time to set up a wallet for him. I don't know much about the background though, who knows maybe the pizza guy was already informed and actually offered to take Bitcoin. Whatever the true background is, it will remain one of the key stories in the history of Bitcoin forever.
sr. member
Activity: 658
Merit: 441
22nd May is widely esteemed in the bitcoin network as it has found its place in the history. It was actually the day the famous and innocent looking Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 pizzas with his bitcoin (10,000 btc).

While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.
If the 10,000 BTC was worth $41 at that time and it was just some little change for Laszlo to spare on pizza since he was a miner. At that time he should have atleast about $1000+ worth of BTC, and I don't think he regrets it. Being the man that bought the most expensive pizza in history is someone one should be proud of 😊
legendary
Activity: 966
Merit: 1042
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While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it...
we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.
Laszlo has made history, No doubt many people would have done the same mistake as Laszlo had did but only he will be remembered because he is the first one. As you mentioned, he felt no regret, because he had a clear mind and he was free of greed. These are some of his statements.
Quote
"It was a really interesting system but nobody's using it," he said. "If nobody's using it, it doesn't matter if I have it all."
souce
This statement might clear your question, because what i think is, he did not see it as 10,000 BTC or as $41 dollars. He was like, there is is no scope in this thing then why would i hold it for nothing. To be very honest, i have this feeling/thought in me, like once i sold some assets to buy a new phone and at that time those assets were around $50 dollars maybe (i know these are not enough to buy a phone but i need only these) I can arrange those $50 dollars from anywhere else but i thought why not them, they are just lying there with no use, i have to use them. (ohh, that's was my feeling before selling them and after few weeks those $50 dollars were around $2500, hehe.) Then i understood that, my mind was stuck on those assets to be get them used.

I think the same feeling was of sir Laszlo have back then and he must be feeling regret on his decision because i as a human lost only $2500 dollars and was angry on myself but he lost a chance to earn millions of dollars and that must have to make him feel regret. Well, if he is not, that's a good thing like what he can do now, other than moving on.
full member
Activity: 896
Merit: 193
web developer for hire
OP wasn't merited so it's a pointless thread for him in the final analysis.

Stupid question, do you currently see those pizzas as 0,0014 BTC or as 41 USD? It does not matter since that is simply how the price was at this time. Even if he saw it at time as 10.000 BTC then he would not value it higher than 41 USD. Same as you would with 0,0014 BTC today.
sr. member
Activity: 1456
Merit: 326
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While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

He did not regret the selling of his bitcoin because may be hi had more bitcoin than this and it was a little amount out of that. I think that there is no need of anything if you cannot make use of it like that of bitcoin so Laszlo originates that way of utilizing bitcoin in a form of payment. He created a system by selling his bitcoin that with more use cases of bitcoin it will be accepted more and will be more worthy.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

Yes exactly no one will spend his whole wealth just for 2 pizzas like if we talk about fiat so we will not use our whole salaries for just one meal but we will manage it to spend whole month.  So it indicates that he didn't have any sense of greed and he used his bitcoin to make the payment system easy and it's really good to use it.



legendary
Activity: 3220
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www.Crypto.Games: Multiple coins, multiple games
Yes he certainly saw it in fiat value, but what I still find interesting is that he actually found a pizzeria that took the Bitcoin as a form of payment. Imagine you would call your pizza guy in 2010, nobody knows anything about Bitcoin and you tell the pizza guy that you are paying with "Bitcoin". Unless they know each other, which pizza guy would agree to take Bitcoin? He must have known at least a little bit about it or how would I even know what this Bitcoin is, what it is worth, where I can use it or trade it. I guess my Italian restaurant around the corner would ask me if I am joking (at least back at the time).

But looking back doesn't make too much sense. For entertainment reasons, yes, but I know quite some people who sold way too early. I am sure there are many people here on this forum who sold way below the ATH we saw in 2021. It's not necessarily about selling 100% of your holdings, but even parts of it would hurt. Resisting to sell is tough when you see those amazing numbers during those bull runs.

I was asking myself about that too. How would someone accept BTC as payment method at a time it was only known by a select few? The pizza guy must've truly believed in BTC, especially when many thought it was a fad or something temporary that would quickly fade away into oblivion. Anyways, it was brave enough for Mr. Hanyecz to spend a hefty sum of BTC on two pizzas even if that wasn't much in Fiat terms at the time of purchase. If he wanted to be rich, he would've held his coins until today. At current market prices, 10k BTC would be equal to $300,000,000. That's insane!

At least, BTC was put to good use (which is digital cash). No matter its price, Bitcoin will always be there to bring you true financial freedom. Just my thoughts Grin
legendary
Activity: 2422
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Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

What other history are we going to make, if presumably, we all bitcoin Laszlo as you said, Laszlo already took it all to himself 😅.

Anyways, it is true, maybe not all of us, but majority of us see and value our bitcoin in its dollar value, this i believe is one of the reasons why It is very much easier to spend, personally, each time I look at my my coins in its value as a coin, maybe I own 0.01 bitcoin and I value it as 0.01 bitcoin, I usually realize how little the amount of bitcoin I own is, and as such, I am reluctant to spend it, when I look at the dollar value, I am comfortable to spend 5 or 10 dollar worth off it.
hero member
Activity: 1890
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Defend Bitcoin and its PoW: bitcoincleanup.com
22nd May is widely esteemed in the bitcoin network as it has found its place in the history. It was actually the day the famous and innocent looking Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 pizzas with his bitcoin (10,000 btc).

While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

I'm sure Mr. Hanyecz wasn't thinking about BTC's price in Fiat terms at the time of purchase. He was using BTC as digital cash. At the time, no one expected Bitcoin to become as popular as it is right now. It didn't come to mind BTC would become worth thousands of dollars (in USD) 14 after its inception. Satoshi never intended Bitcoin to be used as a store of value anyways. He created Bitcoin to be used as an alternative to existing Fiat subject to corruption and manipulation by central banks around the world. Using BTC to pay for food, is one of the many use cases the pioneer cryptocurrency has.

I think Laszlo Hanyecz won't regret spending his 10K BTC worth nothing at the time (compared with today's market price). We should be thinking the same way as he did, by depending on BTC as digital cash. Not as a means to get rich in the long term. BTC has been a widespread success after all these years, so I'm pretty sure it'll become much more valuable in the future. Maybe it will get to replace Fiat in the long run? Just my thoughts Grin

Yes he certainly saw it in fiat value, but what I still find interesting is that he actually found a pizzeria that took the Bitcoin as a form of payment. Imagine you would call your pizza guy in 2010, nobody knows anything about Bitcoin and you tell the pizza guy that you are paying with "Bitcoin". Unless they know each other, which pizza guy would agree to take Bitcoin? He must have known at least a little bit about it or how would I even know what this Bitcoin is, what it is worth, where I can use it or trade it. I guess my Italian restaurant around the corner would ask me if I am joking (at least back at the time).

But looking back doesn't make too much sense. For entertainment reasons, yes, but I know quite some people who sold way too early. I am sure there are many people here on this forum who sold way below the ATH we saw in 2021. It's not necessarily about selling 100% of your holdings, but even parts of it would hurt. Resisting to sell is tough when you see those amazing numbers during those bull runs.
legendary
Activity: 3220
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www.Crypto.Games: Multiple coins, multiple games
22nd May is widely esteemed in the bitcoin network as it has found its place in the history. It was actually the day the famous and innocent looking Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 pizzas with his bitcoin (10,000 btc).

While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

I'm sure Mr. Hanyecz wasn't thinking about BTC's price in Fiat terms at the time of purchase. He was using BTC as digital cash. At the time, no one expected Bitcoin to become as popular as it is right now. It didn't come to mind BTC would become worth thousands of dollars (in USD) 14 after its inception. Satoshi never intended Bitcoin to be used as a store of value anyways. He created Bitcoin to be used as an alternative to existing Fiat subject to corruption and manipulation by central banks around the world. Using BTC to pay for food, is one of the many use cases the pioneer cryptocurrency has.

I think Laszlo Hanyecz won't regret spending his 10K BTC worth nothing at the time (compared with today's market price). We should be thinking the same way as he did, by depending on BTC as digital cash. Not as a means to get rich in the long term. BTC has been a widespread success after all these years, so I'm pretty sure it'll become much more valuable in the future. Maybe it will get to replace Fiat in the long run? Just my thoughts Grin
full member
Activity: 1834
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He was just willing to make that transaction so it doesn't matter how he must have seen it but I think it was bitcoin not converting how much worth it would be in dollars.It was not so much popular at that time and they want to see it as payment method so made this offer of 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas but now it's too big that we have it as most expensive pizzas transactions.
hero member
Activity: 1022
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Magic
I think lazlo also saw the possibility to make a marketing stunt for bitcoin as he was the first person to publicly spend bitcoin on goods. This will bring more value to bitcoin as lazlo could ever loose. The easiest thing would be to simply ask him, since he is here on the forum.
legendary
Activity: 2436
Merit: 1362
That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.


OR he seen it as PIZZA

much like people view their bitcoin as future lambo's or mansions

Thats it, past present and future, we all have spent, are spending and will at some
tome spend Bitcoin in exchange for something else we want or need.

In todays eyes we see 10,000 BTC as an astronomical FIAT value, Laszlo saw a
chance to buy pizza with Bitcoin. Its easy to overlook that concept and focus on the now.

It is a moment in Bitcoin time, a historical point but we are everyday making those
moments for people in the future to look back at our transactions.
hero member
Activity: 1022
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Magic
Stupid question, do you currently see those pizzas as 0,0014 BTC or as 41 USD? It does not matter since that is simply how the price was at this time. Even if he saw it at time as 10.000 BTC then he would not value it higher than 41 USD. Same as you would with 0,0014 BTC today.
legendary
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I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.
What Laszlo did will remain forever in the history of bitcoin but of course he had to look also at the USD value because, whether we like it or not, we need a reference to decide the value of a certain item. He could've offered 5,000 BTC for those 2 pizzas but then who and why would someone have accepted? And let's not forget that he just wanted to prove that you could use bitcoin to buy something real, just like you'd do with cash, so I don't think that relevant at all at the end.
legendary
Activity: 2576
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By that time it's worth $40, so yeah he might have seen that way. The way we see the value of bitcoin as $30k in today's price.

@Vaskiy - I think in one interview he says that someone will have to start it, so he did what he it, buy Pizza with his BTC and it's all started this craze. And during that time, Bitcoin was seen as a payment method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j28hkTJMuTA&t=63s

past forward to 0:55.
legendary
Activity: 1834
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That is not the point because I have read where people are applauded for not have spent their bitcoin from early days. Especially early adopters. This is showing that we don't know what exactly is required of us to enhance bitcoin global adoption.
Either hold or spend their coins, both of them are give a contribution to enhance Bitcoin global adoption.

People who hold their coins for long term will enjoy their profit during Bitcoin bull run, and people who spent their coins to buy or pay something they need, it's not wrong since they've contribute to use Bitcoin as a currency.

Today everyone knows that bitcoin has value and bitcoin can be used for payment of goods and services.
Bitcoin always have a value, value and price is a different thing.
sr. member
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What a great question...

Did Laszlo Hanyecz see it as 10,000 BTC or as $41?

The answer is:

Lazlo see it as a Pizza

In the end he gets two of them for that price.

I think that transactions weren't about the amount of money or about the amount of bitcoin, he want to prove to the world 2 things... The first one was, Bitcoin has a real value, and the second one was, it can be used to buy things. And that guy will be in the history books. Is not about the money behind the transaction, is about someone who believes in a new idea.
It is nice to understand that the purpose for which he initialized the transaction is achieved. Today everyone knows that bitcoin has value and bitcoin can be used for payment of goods and services.
legendary
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What a great question...

Did Laszlo Hanyecz see it as 10,000 BTC or as $41?

The answer is:

Lazlo see it as a Pizza

In the end he gets two of them for that price.

I think that transactions weren't about the amount of money or about the amount of bitcoin, he want to prove to the world 2 things... The first one was, Bitcoin has a real value, and the second one was, it can be used to buy things. And that guy will be in the history books. Is not about the money behind the transaction, is about someone who believes in a new idea.
legendary
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I could remember when I did research about Laszlo, he does that to promote Bitcoin not knowing that it will be one of his biggest mistake ever in the history of Bitcoin. He had made the mistake and now everyone is seeing it as a foolishness which is not so. He decided to sell his Bitcoin because he was just trying to see if Bitcoin can be used to purchase something online.
Really I don't see it as a mistake he made but his attempt to buy pizza with his Bitcoin made the value of Bitcoin to skyrocket those days increase Bitcoin awareness around the world.
Im not sure whether his intention was to promote bitcoin or not, but he wants to find if someone could offer service in exchange for bitcoin. With that in mind he posted it on our forum and a guy bought pizza and delivered to Laszlo. What was hos thinking and his loss is secondary, because if he hadn't used it as currency by that time we couldn't have experienced the ongoing growth of bitcoin. Even now this could've been serving around $100. El Salvador and other countries could've never intended to make it legal tender and more positive growth could've got restricted.
sr. member
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I could remember when I did research about Laszlo, he does that to promote Bitcoin not knowing that it will be one of his biggest mistake ever in the history of Bitcoin. He had made the mistake and now everyone is seeing it as a foolishness which is not so. He decided to sell his Bitcoin because he was just trying to see if Bitcoin can be used to purchase something online.
Really I don't see it as a mistake he made but his attempt to buy pizza with his Bitcoin made the value of Bitcoin to skyrocket those days increase Bitcoin awareness around the world.
sr. member
Activity: 616
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Even if he regrets, he wouldn't make it public but there's actually no good reasons to regret because he has made history. Even if he didn't get the pizza for 10,000 BTC, he would still have spent his bitcoin in order things that might not even worth it. In the worse case he could lose it to scammers which would be a bigger regret.
hero member
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Well at the time, for sure he saw it as 41 bucks, and would probably have reservations about selling 10,000 btc to buy a pizza if he knew what bitcoin's valuation is going to be, but in any case in order for adoptions to be made in this industry "someone has to start it all". Someone has to initiate the chain of events that would make bitcoin valuable in the process. I have no doubt that we owe a great deal to these pioneers that sold bitcoin and used bitcoin for regular transactions.

Laszlo is just but one of the few people who spoke up about their old experiences with bitcoin, there's also the people who bought 50 cent's album using bitcoins making the rapper effectively a millionaire at this point coz he has no plans of selling the earnings he got from that purchase, and many others. It is with our combined efforts that we make bitcoin relevant.
sr. member
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What’s your point? We should all hodl and never spend our bitcoins. How will bitcoin reach global adoption as a currency if bitcoiners are not willing to spend it on goods and services. Obviously he saw the bitcoins for what it was worth at the time. If he had a crystal ball to see the future he wouldn’t have made that transaction. I applaud Laszlo for being one of the first persons who used bitcoin as means of payment as Satoshi intended.

That is not the point because I have read where people are applauded for not have spent their bitcoin from early days. Especially early adopters. This is showing that we don't know what exactly is required of us to enhance bitcoin global adoption.
hero member
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at that time 10000 bitcoin was worth of $41. So he used them to buy two pizzas. Then he was very happy to buy only two pizzas with this 10000 bitcoins.  Because at that time Bitcoin was not used much.  It was never as easy to use Bitcoin and convert it to money as it is now. He then made the first purchase using Bitcoin.  So it was a matter of great joy for him. But currently he has nothing to do but regret those 10000 bitcoins. Because every bitcoin is worth millions of dollars now, it is not possible to get those bitcoins back
If he hadn't used bitcoins at the time, we might not have seen bitcoin at this stage.  However, he used bitcoins to buy pizzas.  But he may or may not have predicted that Bitcoin could go to such a level in the future. But salute to Laszlo Hanyecz who introduced the use of bitcoins back then.
It seems true but Bitcoin did not come to this world only because of Laszlo Hanyecz.  It is because of the hard work of thousands of Laszlo's that Bitcoin has come to this world today. Bitcoin made its first ATH of $20k in 2017 after China first declared Bitcoin as legal currency. Laszlo probably never anticipated this successful future in Bitcoin so he wasted his huge amount of Bitcoin just to buy pizza.  If he had known this he would have held tightly to his bitcoins without spending them
sr. member
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He obviously saw the value of those Bitcoins in term of the FIAT equivalent, he was seeking for someone to trade a pizza for those coins, after all. In order for that to happen, he needed to offer a quantity in BTC which was competitive in comparison to the FIAT value of those pizzas.

The same way you may need to sell some Bitcoin to buy a pizza nowadays, you would look those satoshis for their FIAT value at the moment of the transaction.

Assuming you won't keep track of the price of those same satoshis when the price increase the next week, that is.  Wink

Yeah exactly as what you said, I mean this guy bought couples of pizzas with 10K bitcoins which were worth only $41 at the time. It's likely that many people here have spent bitcoins when the price was below $10,000, so it's hard to blame that person because no one could have predicted with 100% certainty that the price of bitcoin would rise so much. A few years ago I bought my laptop when the bitcoin price was $11k and I spent about 0.05 btc, which was $550 at the time, but now it's worth $1400, I don't regret it because I needed that laptop at the time and I was happy with my purchase.
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I'm not sure that Laszlo had either in mind.  First off, fun fact, Laszlo actually spent over 30,000 bitcoins in total for pizza.  I believe he made at least 3 deals in total for bitcoin for pizza trade.
Even though he doesn't want to think about it, sometimes they make him regret it because it's no longer possible to own 30k bitcoins.  He was probably more than happy to spend them on pizza for the time being.  But if he had 30,000 bitcoins today, he would be worth billions of dollars. However, none of us can say how much thought went into it. But if it had happened to me, I might have died of regret  Cry

at that time 10000 bitcoin was worth of $41. So he used them to buy two pizzas. Then he was very happy to buy only two pizzas with this 10000 bitcoins.  Because at that time Bitcoin was not used much.  It was never as easy to use Bitcoin and convert it to money as it is now. He then made the first purchase using Bitcoin.  So it was a matter of great joy for him. But currently he has nothing to do but regret those 10000 bitcoins. Because every bitcoin is worth millions of dollars now, it is not possible to get those bitcoins back
If he hadn't used bitcoins at the time, we might not have seen bitcoin at this stage.  However, he used bitcoins to buy pizzas.  But he may or may not have predicted that Bitcoin could go to such a level in the future. But salute to Laszlo Hanyecz who introduced the use of bitcoins back then.
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at that time 10000 bitcoin was worth of $41. So he used them to buy two pizzas. Then he was very happy to buy only two pizzas with this 10000 bitcoins.  Because at that time Bitcoin was not used much.  It was never as easy to use Bitcoin and convert it to money as it is now. He then made the first purchase using Bitcoin.  So it was a matter of great joy for him. But currently he has nothing to do but regret those 10000 bitcoins. Because every bitcoin is worth millions of dollars now, it is not possible to get those bitcoins back
legendary
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Neither of the 2 I believe.

After all, he didn't know that a thing called Bitcoin would be this popular after more than a decade, and besides, he didn't regret doing it like what he said in an interview. What he did became his greatest achievement (maybe), and one of the most iconic days of cryptocurrency. He just showed that if he can buy something using Bitcoin then we can do as well as long as both parties agreed into it.

Well, just to answer you OP, I think he saw 10,000 as $41 because if he didn't saw it like that then probably he's still holding it a few years after he did that transaction. Either way, he's happy with what he done with no regrets at all, and I will feel the same as well if I'm the one who did that because we both don't know what can be the future of Bitcoin. There are some more investors in the early years of Bitcoin where they sold it at a lower price for some reasons.
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Laszlo offers 10k bitcoins to everyone who manages to deliver pizzas to his address by any means, obviously he values 10k btc for more than the price of a pizza in the store.
For a deeper message, he just wanted to address his interest in paying with bitcoin, maybe he was curious about how acceptable bitcoin was at the time.
sr. member
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My Opinion, It's likely that Laszlo Hanyecz saw his 10,000 BTC as $41 at the time of buying two pizzas with it, as he doesn't express any remorse about giving away such a large amount of bitcoins. Technology is constantly evolving and adoption is growing and I view bitcoin primarily in terms of its fiat currency value. it's likely that more people will start to see bitcoin's intrinsic value beyond its exchange rate.

Regardless, I think Laszlo will always be remembered as a pioneer in the early days of bitcoin.
legendary
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Laszlo bought those pizzas to make a statement, which was to point out to people that Bitcoin can be used as legal tender to buy something. Many people looked at Bitcoin as "Monopoly" money and they did not take it seriously, but after Laszlo bought those pizzas, everything changed.

Also remember that any form of private money, was and still is ....highly illegal... so doing that was a huge risk at the time. He is one of the true pioneers of Bitcoin....and his supposed financial loss...is getting way too much attention.  Roll Eyes
hero member
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I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.
10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets

We can not know he told the truth about what he felt but to make his life and our life easier, we should consider things simply. If we sell something, we get an amount of money it deserves at that moment and here we go with the deal. No need to look back and regret just like Laszlo said in the interview.

Bitcoin in 2010 and in 2023 are different in its adoption, transaction volume, trading volume and its market price. Like in 2010, being able to sell your bitcoins to something physically is magic. If you see farther in the past, our ancestors even use shells as mean of payment but nowadays, it no longer has such value.
legendary
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He obviously saw the value of those Bitcoins in term of the FIAT equivalent, he was seeking for someone to trade a pizza for those coins, after all. In order for that to happen, he needed to offer a quantity in BTC which was competitive in comparison to the FIAT value of those pizzas.

The same way you may need to sell some Bitcoin to buy a pizza nowadays, you would look those satoshis for their FIAT value at the moment of the transaction.

Assuming you won't keep track of the price of those same satoshis when the price increase the next week, that is.  Wink
hero member
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He wanted to show that bitcoin can be spent and that's what mattered to him. I feel like it was all fun and they didn't know that bitcoin would once be worth more than a thousand dollars.

At that time people were dreaming about 1USD and many thought it to be an unbreakable level, a dream price. For bitcoiners back then $1 was like a million for us now.

I always envy people who are happy with what they have and if you give them a slice of pizza they won't complain that it could've been a 2 course meal.
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Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 
He saw that amount of bitcoin as 41$, so he spent 41$ on buying pizza, not 10,000 btc. It does not mean that he only has 41$ worth of bitcoins also, he can have more bitcoins which he stores somewhere else. But I believe he had these 10,000btc left in his wallet and he wanted to test if he can spend them.

I think you both are practically on the same page, unless for the fact that one of you is saying the purchaser is holding more than 10,000 BTC and the other claim's it's just 10,000 left over BTC use to text if it can run a successful transaction.
I believe he have more than 10,000 btc for him to be able to use it, means he spent little to see what the value of the others will be since a price of 41$ was tag as the value of the 10,000 BTC since that's what the 2 pizza worths
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I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.
You need to remember the context, 50 BTC as block reward and Laszlo was mining with Nvidia 9800 GTX on his Mac OS and no one in the early days expected the market to explode like we see now. Gavin had a faucet giving away 5BTCitcoin per claim so that people would start using BTCitcoin and you would see many selling for cents in the old forum.

For context this is the transaction ID of 10,000 BTC done by Laszlo to Jeremy Sturdivant for the pizza: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/transactions/btc/a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48d

PS: You cannot replace OG  Wink.
legendary
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I'm not sure that Laszlo had either in mind.  First off, fun fact, Laszlo actually spent over 30,000 bitcoins in total for pizza.  I believe he made at least 3 deals in total for bitcoin for pizza trade.

As Laszlo stated, it had to start somewhere.  Someone had to be the first to transact, so I'm not sure he really saw it as either 10,000 bitcoins or 40 bucks.  He just saw it as a way to get thing started, as a way to turn bitcoin in to a currency, a digital virtual currency that solved double spending. Thats a huge deal!
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It's true that many of us see our bitcoin tied with USD but what we can do with that? Since its value is depending on that, it is what it is and that can't be changed.
But these days, it's important to look at that matter to see of how much bitcoin we've got and that should be looked at, like btc/btc or btc = btc. And that's how we're seeing the importance of it on these times because in the future, the price, the value itself will increase and that's the reason why we're looking at with that valuing because soon we may value anything by just having it through satoshis and not depending on dollar value.
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Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 
He saw that amount of bitcoin as 41$, so he spent 41$ on buying pizza, not 10,000 btc. It does not mean that he only has 41$ worth of bitcoins also, he can have more bitcoins which he stores somewhere else. But I believe he had these 10,000btc left in his wallet and he wanted to test if he can spend them.
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He never considered it $41/10k bitcoin, all he wanted was to know whether bitcoin could buy anything. Through our forum he tried and got the answer. He posted it knowing that no service had bitcoin acceptance by then. With that incident people understood it had got value and further it started to increase as the people's interest over it as well as the usage as alternate currency and for transaction needs increased.

Till date the person who took the order and delivered him with the Pizza weren't known to the outer world much. His words were important, because with what mind he bought and whether he kept hold or used for something else need to be known. Jeremy Sturdivant have used it to spend on traveling around USA with his girlfriend. So, both have done it for some reason and printed the names in the history of bitcoin.
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What’s your point? We should all hodl and never spend our bitcoins. How will bitcoin reach global adoption as a currency if bitcoiners are not willing to spend it on goods and services. Obviously he saw the bitcoins for what it was worth at the time. If he had a crystal ball to see the future he wouldn’t have made that transaction. I applaud Laszlo for being one of the first persons who used bitcoin as means of payment as Satoshi intended.
legendary
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Of course he saw it a worth $41, because he wanted to test if bitcoin can be used as a payment scheme, which is what Satoshi design it initially. Although in the years to come, it become an asset that we trade and then the values goes off the roof.

And same thing right now when we used bitcoin to buy or at least used it to purchase something, whether p2p or some 3rd party in between.
If ever this thing didnt happen then we dont really have that historical event on how Bitcoin had been firstly been used up as a payment method. For sure he do sees with those amounts as $41 and not that 10k btc
or something that mind off about on whats the price of it on the future.Yes, it does really give out that kind of regret feeling considering on how much the value of those coins today
but well whats done is done and this one remains out to be historic on Bitcoins history which we know that it cant be forgotten.
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Everything needs a start either with loss or profit. he was a programmer which made him intelligent enough to understand the consequences he could face and I think that's why he is cool and ok with his decisions, well his transaction is considered as "First BTC transaction" well, did you know where he placed an order to sell his 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas?

He made a post on Bitcointalk by Pizza for bitcoins? and one of the community member named as jercos bought him 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Here you can read the post made by laszlo says,
Quote
I just want to report that I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.

Pictures: http://heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/

Thanks jercos!
Well reading this thread will give you goosebumps so read it if you have a strong heart hehe.

The link to the pictures is not working on my side maybe it's invalid now. Well, all I can say What is not in luck, you will never get. There could be a lot of events just like laszlos but only the first one will be remembered same the first man to step foot on the moon is Neil Armstrong but who knows the 5th, or 10th, or 20th one?

Only He who initiates is remembered because he is the one taking all risks and has to face good or bad consequences. At that time idk what he was thinking because he can buy pizzas without BTC but why he did that maybe that's the sacrifice BTC needs to be adopted as a payment method maybe that sacrifice kept up the trust of people in BTC which take it to the height of the $69k. It's like BTC needs blood and Sir Laszlo gave it.
hero member
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Of course he saw it a worth $41, because he wanted to test if bitcoin can be used as a payment scheme, which is what Satoshi design it initially. Although in the years to come, it become an asset that we trade and then the values goes off the roof.

And same thing right now when we used bitcoin to buy or at least used it to purchase something, whether p2p or some 3rd party in between.
legendary
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That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.


OR he seen it as PIZZA

much like people view their bitcoin as future lambo's or mansions
legendary
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I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.


Fine, it can be as you're saying, but what does it change? Should we never buy anything because it could be worth more? It probably will be, but we have our lives to live and money is just a tool that allows us to do it. It's all spendable and should be spent.

To be clear, I'm against selling bitcoin for fiat, but I'm all for spending it on goods and services.


Let me ask you a question. If you knew that bitcoin will appreciate 5% every year, so holding a million USD in bitcoin would give you additional 50k to spend every year, would you ever sell your bitcoin? That 50k of profit would produce another 2,5k next year and you'd have more and more money, eventually falling into a spiral of greed. What's all that money if you can't be happy with it and buy what you need? Laszlo wanted pizza and that made him happy. He also made history. Will you ever? Think about it.
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That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.
The same way you are seeing 1 BTC to be $28k, that's the exact same way Laszlo saw 10,000 BTC to be $41, which was in no doubt it's worth 13yrs ago. Because thou it may be looking too big for you today because of how it's value has skyrocketed within the past few years, but the fact remains that anybody would have done the same thing he did 13yrs ago by selling his 10,000 BTC for just mere 2 pizzas.

So may I ask @ O.P this just one question..

Between 1 Bitcoin or $100,000. Which one will you choose??.. (I guess $100k, right?)

So how about in the next 20yrs from today and the price of 1 Bitcoin may have skyrocketed to $1million per BTC, will you ever regret ever choosing $100k over 1 BTC?? ... Yes or No
hero member
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Or may be he never measured it in fiat currency at all. He might just have tried it out how someone would react to bitcoin as mode of payment. He ended up exchanging it with the guy which means either the second person was knowledgeable enough to understand what it is and might have taken efforts to install the wallet or app available at that time and grab the opportunity to get those bitcoins.

They both literally done bitcoin exchange for the commodity and thus adding real value to the bitcoin. Just love it how they did it without even having greed for bitcoins fiat value. At that time no one really had an idea whether it will work or not?
hero member
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I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.


Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 
sr. member
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Obviously he had more than $10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy.
10,000 units of it, not it's worth in USD.
Thanks for the observation and correction.  We are used to measuring btc value with fiat.
legendary
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How one sees Bitcoin is useless except it gets traded for something else. At the time, 2 pizzas was approximately worth 10,000 bitcoins, today, 2 pizzas are worth a couple of sats or one-seventh of one Bitcoin. Ten years from now, it might be worth 1 sat or less.
The value is still very much speculative, but it's those that are willing to use it as a currency that create inroads for more adoption.

Obviously he had more than $10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy.
10,000 units of it, not it's worth in USD.
sr. member
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22nd May is widely esteemed in the bitcoin network as it has found its place in the history. It was actually the day the famous and innocent looking Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 pizzas with his bitcoin (10,000 btc).

While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.
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