May 22, 2023, marks the thirteenth anniversary of the first time a cryptocurrency was used to make a purchase of real goods. If you couldn't tell by the title, yes, it was pizza. Laszlo Hanyecz made history by becoming the first person to use Bitcoin to purchase real goods, which led to today becoming Bitcoin Pizza Day!
At the time, the crypto community was small and the value of bitcoin was relatively low, so Hanyecz's pizza purchase may not have seemed like a big deal. In fact, he spent about 10,000 bitcoins on two pizzas from Papa John's. But fast-forward twelve years and Bitcoin is now a familiar name. The crypto community has grown exponentially.
This day serves as a reminder of how far Bitcoin has come and the movement it pioneered. I know the market isn't in the best place right now, and there are still many doubts about the safety and regulation of crypto, but I think the future looks bright because of the fact that the internet will eventually become a decentralized landscape and people will essentially have to use these digital currencies to participate in commerce.
And with AI now in the mix, we could see an even bigger push for the Metaverse and virtual reality.
It's been a wild ride over the past thirteen years. Who knows where we'll be in another couple of years, but one thing is for sure- it's always an interesting journey.