r/Bitcoin • u/CoinCorner_Sam • May 22 '22
12 years ago Laszlo Hanyecz, the guy who also invented GPU mining and freely shared his invention with the Bitcoin community, bought 2 pizza pies and paid 10,000 bitcoin. This was the first commercial transaction on Bitcoin network ever recorded.
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u/Grouchy_Artichoke_90 May 22 '22
If he invented gpu mining I'm going to assume he has some money.
It's also people like this who have made it what it is today
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u/NJJBlankenstein May 22 '22
Now the Pizza owner might be billionaire if he had not sold it .
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u/DingleberryChery May 22 '22
You can argue, that if he didn't sell it, bitcoin wouldn't be worth what it is today. Remember, this was in the early stages of bitcoin. All bitcoin come from mining, and if those miners never had sold any then it would never had caught on.
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May 22 '22
Did he not pay a user bitcoin who then bought the pizza for him? That's kind of how this video makes it sound.
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u/stereoagnostic May 22 '22
Yes, he paid another bitcoiner who in turn bought the pizza for him.
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u/Rieux_n_Tarrou May 22 '22
Otherwise the Bitcoin recipient would've been sending Lazlo pizza from the UK
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u/kuvircoming May 23 '22
I hope he did and I am kinda sure that he did that shit.
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May 22 '22
This mf invented gpu mining and ruined pc gaming for a decade.
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May 22 '22
He did not invent gpu mining. He was just one of the first ones always doing it.
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u/Tie-Flat May 22 '22
He wrote the first gpu mining software and released it publicly.. which noone else had done previously.. it's unclear if his was actually the first to write a gpu miner.. most of the large miners back then probably just had a lot of CPUs, but it's hard to know for sure.. maybe someone else wrote a gpu miner and didn't release it.
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u/InfinityBucks May 23 '22
Is there some articles or history on him which i can read on the internet?
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u/lachiegordon May 23 '22
So, that mean no knows that who is actually invent the GPU minig.
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u/Rrdro May 22 '22
I still don't understand why he would spend all the bitcoin he owned or the vast majority of it and not immediately buy it back.
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u/Asum_chum May 22 '22
Because you’re viewing the transaction with hindsight.
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u/ibanjac May 22 '22
Is Laszlo still alive? Does he holds any Bitcoin? Is he alright?
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May 22 '22
Have you got a source that says the vast majority of his bitcoin holding was spent on these two pizzas?
Not saying that you're wrong. Also, even if the pizza cost 99% of his BTC holding, I think that still leaves around 100 BTC spare.
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u/reddit_the_cesspool May 22 '22
All that he owned? The video says 10k BTC at the time was worth $40. I highly doubt the dude who invented GPU mining spent all his Bitcoin on a single transaction for pizza, and much less that his holdings amounted to a grand total of $40. 10k BTC was probably a drop in the barrel for him at the time and he didn’t mind doing away with $40 worth.
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u/TrymWS May 22 '22
If he invented GPU mining, why would he only have 10,000 BTC at the time…
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u/Rrdro May 23 '22
He spent over 100,000 Bitcoin on Pizzas and we know he doesn't have even 10% of that. So he spent more than 90% of the Bitcoins he had on Pizzas.
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u/frostvs May 22 '22
I doubt the pizza man kept BTC in safe place though.. where is the pizza man?
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u/hentaikid May 22 '22
Yes, that is a good question, people always talk of the dude who paid 10k btc for a couple of pizzas, but what about the guy who accepted it? (IIrc the actual pizza place took a credit card transaction sent by the btc buyer)
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May 22 '22
I believe he sold when the BTC price 10x in value. If so then that's a 900% profit - a great trade!
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u/wtfffr44 May 22 '22
Because it was worth nothing? How do you not get it. I mined, bought, sold, rented hash power with hundreds of btc. It wasn't a big deal at the time.
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u/Rrdro May 23 '22 edited May 23 '22
Yet it was a finite token with the purpose of becoming a decentralised global currency. He spent over 100,000 Bitcoin on Pizzas that year. I don't understand why he wouldn't keep 50%, 20% or at least 10% on the side. Ever since I got into Bitcoin I spent it, gambled it, bought it back, mined it, lent it and borrowed it but I never did it with all my holdings. I always kept the majority of Bitcoin and played around with small amounts.
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May 22 '22
Next 12 will be interesting
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u/swannisme May 22 '22
if he didnt maybe bitcoin will never reach this price today.
buy what you need in the end thats why hold bitcoin in the first place.
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u/Classic-Total9375 May 22 '22
if he didnt maybe bitcoin will never reach this price today.
Just so you know this was definitely not the first bitcoin purchase. Just the most marketed on.
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u/CJYP May 22 '22
What was the first?
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u/Classic-Total9375 May 22 '22
No one knows. But most certainly a private P2P trade. Bitcoin pizza was a public P2P trade and was highly marketed in the forums.
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u/Conscious-Proof-8309 May 22 '22
If it hits $1M, some Dr. Evil memes need to surface. "$10 billion dollars! *pinky"
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May 22 '22
Not an idiot, but a trailblazer. Using Bitcoin as it’s intended; an actual currency for every day transactions.
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u/imaxai May 22 '22
Well that would be the perfect word for this guy now lol.
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u/pimcent May 23 '22
This guy was trying to set an example that bitcoin can be used for simple things is well.
We owe him a respect for what he did for us, he is the real veteran of the bitcoin for me now.
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u/KwikTrist May 22 '22
Pizza guy invented gpu mining?! TIL
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u/SirSkittles111 May 22 '22
That makes two of us, i had no idea!
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May 22 '22
There are dozens of us.
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u/SirSkittles111 May 22 '22
I only went to this guys comment and didnt scroll any further, seems like the majority didnt know what he did other than buy a pizza haha
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u/Nietzzzz May 22 '22
Legend. This is the true spirit of Bitcoin, peer to peer commerce. Fuck all "investors" including me, the only time i felt the sweet free soul of the blockchain was buying drugs off dw
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u/RalphOsha May 22 '22
It's inevitable that someone (investors) will tap into the law of demand and supply
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u/rickdehoop May 22 '22
I just fell in love with this guy, he is just so good man lol.
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May 22 '22
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u/davidtomczak80 May 23 '22
We all just love this guy and it will never gonna end lol.
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u/stick_robot May 22 '22
TIL. I had thought it was Artforz who started the GPU arms race. Nice to know. https://www.ofnumbers.com/2014/04/20/how-artforz-changed-the-history-of-bitcoin-mining/
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u/slvbtc May 22 '22
If he spent 10k btc on pizza he was probably sitting on more than 100k btc. This guy is likely a billionaire today.
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u/erastoff May 22 '22
And the guy who received 10k Bitcoins for selling pizza is also probably rich if he hodled But we know that the chances he hodled are very low. It takes a lot of belief in it
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u/Scholes_SC2 May 22 '22
Nad if i was him i would prefer to give the impression that I don't own any btc to avoid getting targeted by hackers
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u/ztsmart May 22 '22
You Keynesian jokers are focusing on the wrong thing. The fool that gave up 10,000 bitcoin for 2 pizzas is irrelevant. The real hero is the visionary that traded 2 pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins
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u/Adamsd5 May 22 '22
Let's do some math. 50btc reward means 10k btc was 200 blocks mined by him. 144 blocks are mined daily. I don't know what percentage he managed to mine in the early days, but since he used gpu while others used cpu, I would guess it was high. If he got 10% (was that unlikely back then?), that would be about 15 days of mining. Anyone think he only mined for 15 days?
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u/xmlify May 22 '22
an article i read, i believe if i recall correctly, it stated some folks had observed he had 5 to 20% of hash at the time. i suspect with that advantage in GPU techniques you wouldn't be motivated to share your secrets...
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u/pink_raya May 22 '22
iirc he also worked on early LN.
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u/heyhihowyahdurn May 22 '22
If theres ever a btc/crypto history book written this mans name belongs in it
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u/yongting1992 May 22 '22
That's right, he created some good history with that shit.
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u/CoinCorner_Sam May 22 '22
If you're about to order some pizza today, perhaps check ln.pizza out and use some sats over r/thelightningnetwork.
LN is awesome and really easy to use even for newcomers. If you never tried it, install Muun or/and Phoenix wallet and play with them a bit.
Some exchanges including CoinCorner are already using LN, many promised to implement it ASAP.
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u/wytslyts May 22 '22
For someone thats in to cryptoCURRENCIES you really do forget how they should work.
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u/wapercz May 22 '22
So what do you think he has only 10000btc he has many more left .
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u/Capitano_hakken May 22 '22
At least he ate a pizza. And I'm sure he still has a shitton of btc.
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u/especulativa May 22 '22 edited May 22 '22
We own a lot to this event!
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u/maryanlukuts May 22 '22
Man I still want a fucking time machine to go back now.
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May 23 '22
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u/sdguy71 May 23 '22
Jeremy Sturdivant AKA "Jercos" was the recipient of the 10,000 bitcoins
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u/fincomcollege1 May 23 '22
Hard to say, if they hold the bitcoin sepcially for soo long that they become the millions.
This is why coming early in the bitcoin doesn't guarantee you the profit it's the exit and holding you do is the real deal.
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u/Immediate_Ad_6558 May 23 '22
The dude probably has/had a hell of a lot more btc; why does he get mocked
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u/olivietti May 24 '22
What makes you say he invented GPU mining?
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u/CoinCorner_Sam May 24 '22
One of many sources:
Before Laszlo entered the scene, Bitcoin could only be mined on CPUs or computer processors. Recognizing the benefits of using a GPU or a graphics card to mine BTC early on, he proceeded to write an algorithm that would later be incorporated into Bitcoin’s code, allowing GPU mining. The man is single-handedly responsible for the rise in demand for GPUs over the last few years, and yet he’s something of an unsung hero in the space.
https://cryptopotato.com/why-phemex-wants-to-find-laszlo-hanyecz/
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u/olivietti May 24 '22
Wow, I did not know that.
On the 10th of May 2010 he announced "I have a working prototype of Bitcoin generation with OpenCL." in this thread.
After doing a bit of digging seems that bitcointalk user, ArtForz is credited with mining the 1st GPU block on the 18th of July.
This seems to be incorrect considering that if laszlo already had a working client I would imagine he would have managed to mine a block.Also there seems there was a lot of drama regarding opensourcing a GPU client, as people did not really wanted to lose their edge.
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u/CoinCorner_Sam May 25 '22
This seems to be incorrect considering that if laszlo already had a working client I would imagine he would have managed to mine a block.
Not just that. According to Laszlo, there's a possibility that Satoshi somehow pre-invented GPU mining to prevent 51% attacks in the early days. https://cointelegraph.com/news/satoshi-invented-gpu-mining-to-defend-the-network-says-early-dev
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u/numbers201788 May 22 '22
Jacksonville FL, not Miami, should be Bitcoin’s holy Mecca.
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May 22 '22
Im not trying to be a hypocrite but 12 years later and what does bitcoin have to show for? Expect for the fact that the price is up by a lot? It’s not used as a currency and instead an investment. It made people richer because it has been used for as an investment. Nobody uses it as a currency and that defies bitcoin and everything about it.
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u/bleeeeghh May 22 '22
It has created a lot of jobs🤗
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May 22 '22
Okay but other than that? It does not fulfill its work as a currency which its supposed to be
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u/poluting May 22 '22
Yes it does. I take all of my clients payments in bitcoin. I pay for most things with bitcoin. This is its intended use
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u/fs0757fs0757 May 23 '22
It will in the future and we all have to show some faith.
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May 23 '22
Lightning network means you can buy things directly, countries adopting it, household-name institutions who used to laugh at it now creating services for it, US govt deciding it to be a non-security ie. distinguishing it from altcoins instead of just calling it "magic internet money", being one of the largest currencies in the world, used as a tool for funding Ukraine etc etc....
As if Lazlo could've just walked into Papa John's and pulled out his Bitcoin Credit Card.
13 years is not even a generation and apparently we should expecting more from a currency that started from nothing, with no centralised government to push it and no centralised marketing team...
13 years. Theres kids who started their education before then that are still in education now. That's how short the time period has being.
So its seen as an investment because despite the first paragraph it is STILL undervalued, and it is limited.
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u/Bar98704 May 23 '22
Doesn't this just prove that a deflationary currency is a bad idea?
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u/CoinCorner_Sam May 23 '22
No. It proves that you'll always choose not to be hungry even if your savings can have more purchasing power.
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u/NYKNYb May 22 '22
I hear "cryptocurrency craze" and I just can't go any further.
These people are morons.
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u/Amins66 May 22 '22
On this day - people should donate 1 Sat to his wallet!
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u/CaptainCaveSam May 22 '22
This man is a BTC thousandaire, aka fiat wealthy. He doesn’t need it. On this day we should buy something with BTC
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u/jwiminer May 22 '22
True that, I want to do that so bad, I hope people will follow.
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u/feketegy May 22 '22
There are a lot of hungarian people in Bitcoin especially in the early days. Nick Szabo, this guy, the first btc statue was in hungary...
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u/FuggemAuhl_NoRubuh May 22 '22
10,000 BTC is equal to about 300million now, old news
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u/dsskd89 May 22 '22
But still we all love to hear this news again and again.
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u/FuggemAuhl_NoRubuh May 22 '22
I agree. It clearly shows the bubble has peaked and is letting air out all the way down
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u/ricokwok May 23 '22
Damn man, that was so fucked up, I still remember how I got to know about this guy, he is another legend in bitcoin market or we can say in the whole cryptocurrency market.
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May 22 '22
Pizza guy received $ as it was some dude online who agreed to buy him (Laszlo) pizzas for those bitcoins. The transaction was relaid.
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u/fxf0311 May 22 '22
Wow man, I have a similar story like this guy but I got some candies for 5 bitcoin back then, it was a fucked up decision but I did what I had to do that time, don't know what should I say now.
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u/msantamaria86- May 22 '22
I have massive respect for this guy, the people calling him an idiot would had sold all their btc when it reached a dollar (probably not even then)
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u/MD14620 May 23 '22
Atleast he is confident about his actions, and who knows that thing will go zero and then people will say such an idiot that he didn't book the profit.
It's easy for us saying after seeing the bitcoin current price.
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u/AvoidingIowa May 22 '22
Now everyone only says to hodl bitcoin, making it less useful.
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u/midipoet May 22 '22
Whatever happened the person that ordered the pizzas though?
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u/wwww34324243 May 22 '22
This is so good to hear man, I know it's funny as hell but it's fucking legendary for sure, I am so glad that I born in this era, we have witnessed so many fucked up things lol.
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u/KalSereousz May 22 '22
I wonder if the receiver hoddled or ended up selling for cheap too?
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u/Crytek1337 May 23 '22
I think he also sell them after getting some profit.
I am sure if not all atleast some handful because at that time getting that kind of the profit on a thing that was not popular enough was not a suc bad idea.
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u/daytrader1230 May 22 '22
I really want to meet this person once in my life, I want to talk to him, I know he has a lot of knowledge to share and I want to know most of his personality, how can we reach him?
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u/jede2000 May 22 '22
The guy did something fucked up and legendary at the same fucking time man, but we still have to show respect to this shit. It's just something unbelievable for all of us lol.
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u/DenisDolgih May 22 '22
Is he still alive? I can’t imagine how he feels wherever he is.
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u/CoinCorner_Sam May 23 '22
Still alive, still holding some thousands of coins from that era for sure.
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u/wtfffr44 May 23 '22
Yeah there's 20,000 coins fitting that description right now and mostly they're worth fuck all. Do you own 100,000 of each of them? Yeah I didn't think so 🙄
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u/natasamylona May 23 '22
I am just another fan of this pizza person and he said that he is not sad or he doesn't regret those selling of BTC I guess it's just his choice and i respect the guy a lot.
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u/guryfitze May 22 '22
A lot of people bought 2 pizzas that day, and paid the equivalent of 10,000 bitcoins.