[2018-10- 03] From Pizza To Lambos: Charting Bitcoin’s First Decade

[Jednopivo]

Ten years ago this month, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper online introducing the concept of a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” called Bitcoin. But it wasn’t until May 2010, when software developer Laszlo Hanyecz swapped 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas, that the virtual currency became a means for buying real-world stuff.

Suffice it to say, you can get a lot more than two pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoins these days.

Here’s a look at how the purchasing power of that original transaction has changed over the past eight years, running the gamut from iPads to Lamborghinis (or Lambos, in industry parlance) as early adopters, true believers, Wall Street financiers and retail investors all jumped on the Bitcoin rollercoaster.

Full article and great timeline can be found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-bitcoin-anniversary/

[Irvinn]

Yes, it will soon be ten years since cryptocurrency has begun to gradually enter our lives. During this time, she made a real revolution in financial relations between people. It can already be said that it will be adopted and approved for circulation in most states, it has been talked about at all levels, including intergovernmental structures, and special opposition to its introduction has not yet been observed.

[magneto]

Ten years ago this month, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper online introducing the concept of a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” called Bitcoin. But it wasn’t until May 2010, when software developer Laszlo Hanyecz swapped 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas, that the virtual currency became a means for buying real-world stuff.

Suffice it to say, you can get a lot more than two pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoins these days.

Here’s a look at how the purchasing power of that original transaction has changed over the past eight years, running the gamut from iPads to Lamborghinis (or Lambos, in industry parlance) as early adopters, true believers, Wall Street financiers and retail investors all jumped on the Bitcoin rollercoaster.

Full article and great timeline can be found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-bitcoin-anniversary/

It's actually very simple economics.

The amount of adopters have increased drastically while the supply of bitcoin has been relatively unchanged and inflated at a controlled manner (unlike some fiat currencies which are currently undergoing hyperinflation). The result of this is a rise in purchasing power.

I think that it's an interesting article which puts everything into context. However, i'd have to say that even though it may seem like that right now we're experiencing some volatile markets, in the long term scheme of things it's definitely just short term background noise over anything else.

[greeklogos]

It seems unbelievable that bitcoin is celebrating its tenth birthday. People begun to talk about it actively only when it crossed 1000$ boarder and the first time it happen only few years ago. We may only guess what we will have in coming next ten years.

[AltEvangelist]

Ah, this was cool!
For TLDR fans: 2 Pizzas -> iPad -> 1oz Gold -> Berkshire Hathaway Class A share -> Tesla Model S -> Ellen Degeneres’ ranch -> first Superman comic book -> 2 special edition Lambos -> Paul Newman’s Rolex -> Mark Rothko’s No. 6 -> Lockheed Martin F-35A jet -> Excellence V yacht
It has been a roller coaster ride indeed. But we are just getting started. Transactions topped USD 1B only last year. For anybody interested, there is a Twitter handle that tracks the value of those 2 pizzas in US dollars everyday: https://twitter.com/bitcoin_pizza?lang=en

[Lanatsa]

Ten years ago this month, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper online introducing the concept of a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” called Bitcoin. But it wasn’t until May 2010, when software developer Laszlo Hanyecz swapped 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas, that the virtual currency became a means for buying real-world stuff.

Suffice it to say, you can get a lot more than two pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoins these days.

Here’s a look at how the purchasing power of that original transaction has changed over the past eight years, running the gamut from iPads to Lamborghinis (or Lambos, in industry parlance) as early adopters, true believers, Wall Street financiers and retail investors all jumped on the Bitcoin rollercoaster.

Full article and great timeline can be found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-bitcoin-anniversary/

Its always been part of the history of bitcoin where a transaction had been made physically on using up a digital coin. No matter how bad it is that certain bitcoin user didnt expect for its coin to boom up
in upcoming years but if im on his feet i wont really make any regrets yet you made a history that wont really be easily forgotten.

: https://twitter.com/bitcoin_pizza?lang=en

Thanks for the share up mate! Daily updates of the price of that 10k btc.

[BitHodler]

It seems unbelievable that bitcoin is celebrating its tenth birthday. People begun to talk about it actively only when it crossed 1000$ boarder and the first time it happen only few years ago. We may only guess what we will have in coming next ten years.

If the market cycles repeat, which is more than likely, the next major bull run will push the price through the $100,000 mark. It's however hard to imagine right now without Bitcoin scaling properly.

I keep thinking about last year's bull run and how it caused the network fees to increase so much, that Bitcoin wasn't longer usable for people dealing with $50/$100 amounts. The higest fee I paid last year was $40ish which is crazy.

That's why I strongly hope that there won't be another bull run any time soon. Sure, more SegWit adoption helps, but it hasn't seen much of a boost at all with how SegWit usage still hovers well below 50%.

[dunfida]

It seems unbelievable that bitcoin is celebrating its tenth birthday. People begun to talk about it actively only when it crossed 1000$ boarder and the first time it happen only few years ago. We may only guess what we will have in coming next ten years.

If the market cycles repeat, which is more than likely, the next major bull run will push the price through the $100,000 mark. It's however hard to imagine right now without Bitcoin scaling properly.

I keep thinking about last year's bull run and how it caused the network fees to increase so much, that Bitcoin wasn't longer usable for people dealing with $50/$100 amounts. The higest fee I paid last year was $40ish which is crazy.

That's why I strongly hope that there won't be another bull run any time soon. Sure, more SegWit adoption helps, but it hasn't seen much of a boost at all with how SegWit usage still hovers well below 50%.

People still stick mostly on Core and I do say if Segwit would be embraced then there would be no problem even if the price shoots up yet it can handle and wont really be similar on the situation of fees problem just like on last year.Im aint also hoping for a bull run which the price do moves into a faster pace.I do rather prefer on seeing a gradual increase and correction on a proper manner.

[1Referee]

I keep thinking about last year's bull run and how it caused the network fees to increase so much, that Bitcoin wasn't longer usable for people dealing with $50/$100 amounts. The higest fee I paid last year was $40ish which is crazy.

That's why I strongly hope that there won't be another bull run any time soon. Sure, more SegWit adoption helps, but it hasn't seen much of a boost at all with how SegWit usage still hovers well below 50%.

I definitely agree, but there is one very important factor that people don't look at, which is the BCash split.

It motivated insane amounts of hashpower to hop back and forth from chain to chain based on what at that point offered more profitability, and that caused Bitcoin's block times to become 50-75% slower than what they usually would be. I remember how my nodes at that point had well over 200,000 transactions stuck in their mempools.

There was one brief moment last year where BCash managed to obtain more hashpower than Bitcoin. Most people don't realize how serious the situation was back then due to the positive bull run momentum, but that's probably a good thing in the end.

[AltEvangelist]

No matter how bad it is that certain bitcoin user didnt expect for its coin to boom up
in upcoming years but if im on his feet i wont really make any regrets yet you made a history that wont really be easily forgotten.

Rightly said. He is now a part of history. Laszlo Hanyecz is also one of the early contributors to bitcoin code and in multiple interviews has mentioned that he does not regret parting with the 10k BTC (For example, https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-pizza-guy-laszlo-hanyecz-on-why-bitcoin-is-still-the-only-flavor-of-crypto-for-him). In fact, most early bitcoin adopters/developers gave away a lot of BTCs. In fact, Gav Andresen (who is also one of the early devs) had created a faucet in 2011 that gave away a total of 10k BTCs (@5 BTC/person/day) that he had supposedly purchased for only 50$.

Thanks for the share up mate! Daily updates of the price of that 10k btc.

You're welcome

[timerland]

It's not just the prices increasing either, it's a lot more than that.

We've seen huge amounts of adoption, both on an institutional scale and on an individual scale, come into the bitcoin ecosystem. There has been increased merchant acceptance of bitcoin as well. Liquidity of bitcoin has improved to the point that you can essentially travel the world with simply bitcoin and p2p trading wherever you go.

It's been a huge decade and I'd say that the growth is not slowing down. And this also gives you a nice long term perspective on things given the fact that a lot of people are worried about this current bear market. When you zoom out, this really doesn't matter at all. These bear markets will come to an end eventually, and at the end of the day, prices will go up in the long term as long as demand/user base increases.

[pay_scotty]

Interesting article which shows a pretty good timeline - would be good for general knowledge info