What became of Laszlo Hanyecz?

It is arguably the most expensive pizza order in world history. When the American Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin almost eleven years ago, he could not have suspected that this transaction would later make him world famous.

Hanyecz was one of the very first Bitcoin miners. Due to his early entry into the crypto space, he is something like the Dagobert Duck among Bitcoiners. The only problem is that back then there weren’t any ways to actually pay with BTC. Hanyecz wants to change that. In a Bitcoin forum he made a request to pay 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. After about four days, Jeremy Sturdivant (alias Jercos) contacted me on May 22, 2010. He assures Hanyecz that he will send him two pizzas. The deal comes off and Hanyecz proudly announces:

I just want to share that I have successfully exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for pizza. Thank you, Jercos

In general, this exchange is considered to be the first ever transaction in Bitcoin. Hanyecz paid Sturdivant $ 41 US dollars for this – today’s equivalent: over 570 million US dollars. Since then, May 22nd has been “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.

That’s what Laszlo Hanyecz is doing today

Today, Hanyecz, born in Jacksonville, Florida, is an IT employee at Goruck, a clothing company that specializes in the manufacture of backpacks. Since her employee is an internet celebrity, Goruck also accepts Bitcoin. Hanyecz himself says he has not regretted the transaction, after all, someone should have got the ball rolling.

What happened to the 10,000 BTC?

The question that many people must have asked themselves: What happened to the 10,000 Bitcoin that Laszlo Hanyecz paid for the pizzas at the time? Sturdivant answered this question in an interview. Accordingly, all 10,000 Bitcoin would have quickly found their way back into the economic cycle. Especially for video games from the “Humble Bundle” distribution platform. According to his own information, the 29-year-old has not participated in any commercial Bitcoin companies. He is currently working as a product engineer at Inovonics, a manufacturer of professional radio equipment.

Since the legendary Bitcoin pizza transaction, the cryptocurrency has undergone a tremendous change. Only now and then away from the means of payment until it finally became the digital store of value that Bitcoin represents for many today. Some institutions even refer to BTC as “digital gold”. That comparison may have sounded at least as absurd in 2010 as it would be bizarre today to spend 10,000 Bitcoin on a pizza.

Disclaimer

This article first appeared in the April issue of our monthly magazine “Kryptokompass”. If you want to find out more, all information is available here.