We’ve all spent ridiculous amounts of cash on stupid things in our lives, but I can’t ever remember spending over US$80 million dollars on a couple of pizzas like American Laszlo Hanyecz. Known as “Bitcoin pizza guy,” Hanyecz didn’t know he was purchasing two Papa John’s supreme pizzas for a cheeky 80 mil, as back in 2010 when the transaction was made, the 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) used was only worth a mere US$25.
At the time, Hanyecz’s transaction was actually the first real-world purchase using the currency, with a single Bitcoin valued at just 0.0025 cents.
Today, they’ll sell for around US$8,000 each, meaning Hanyecz splashed out the equivalent of nearly US$80 million for two deep pan pizzas. If that’s not mind-boggling enough, Hanyecz has admitted to spending around 100,000 BTC on pizza over the early years, a regret he definitely has now.
This story gained traction after Hanyecz appeared on 60 Minutes over the weekend to explain his actions to confused host Anderson Cooper. When asked if he sometimes wakes up in a cold sweat and regrets his decision, Hanyecz replies in the short clip below; “I think thinking like that is not really good for me.” I have to agree with him there.
In the early days of cryptocurrency, one man decided to trade his bitcoin for pizza. It was a historic event, but not such a great investment. "60 Minutes" reports, Sunday https://t.co/qS8Swvl5Go pic.twitter.com/raUBvyCD36
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 16, 2019
Hanyecz has addressed the situation before and continues to have a positive outlook on things. Speaking with Coin Telegraph last year the pizza lover exclaimed; “I don’t regret it. I think that it’s great that I got to be part of the early history of Bitcoin in that way, and people know about the pizza and it’s an interesting story because everybody can kind of relate to that and be [like] – ‘Oh my God, you spent all of that money.'”
“I was also kind of giving people tech support on the forums and I ported Bitcoin to MacOS, and you know, some other things – fix bugs and whatnot, and I’ve always kind of just wanted people to use Bitcoin and buying the pizza was one way to do that. I didn’t think it would get as popular as it has, but it’s gotten to be a really catchy story for people.”
I have to commend Hanyecz for his glass half full approach because if I realised I’d spent US$80 million on a couple of pizzas, I don’t think I’d ever leave the house again.
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