Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! The pizzas in 2010 now cost $800M

MANILA, Philippines – Today, May 22, is Bitcoin Pizza Day, where we remember the moment a simple challenge for pizza turned into an iconic, international day for cryptocurrency. 

In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz posted a challenge on a forum to buy him two large pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. 

At the time, 10,000 bitcoins cost around $40 or around P1,800. Now, those two large pizzas would value at $800 million or around P49 billion.

The evolution of cryptocurrency

Bitcoin was first launched in 2008. In its early days, its use in the real world was still questioned. 

Then, in 2009, the first transaction was made by its founder, under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto to software developer Hal Finney.

Though Nakamoto’s real identity remains unknown, his legacy and his introduction of bitcoin propelled the world into the validity of digital currency.

Ethereum to NFTs

Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum was introduced in 2015. 

An open-sourced decentralized blockchain that revolutionized the way we think about money. 

Decentralized meant that no singular authority owned the currency or platform. 

No banks controlled the currency, and people from all around the world were in control. 

RELATED STORY: Binance removed from Google Play Store Philippines

Then, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were introduced and later boomed. 

First conceptualized in 2014, the trend caught on by 2017 when Cryptokitties was launched in Ethereum. 

Cryptokitties was a blockchain game that allowed users to buy, sell, and raise virtual pets. These virtual pets were NFTs that gave users digital ownership of that pet. 

Similar games were introduced, such as Axie Infinity. The game by Vietnamese studio, Sky Mavis, saw its boom in 2021.

Future of cryptocurrency

However, while cryptocurrencies are now worth millions than they were years ago, the hype has significantly slowed.

RELATED STORY: Crypto Kpop: Linking culture and the blockchain

Though the hype may not be as it once was, cryptocurrency remains an active global industry in a highly digitalized world.