Laszlo and jercos

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Didn't know which section this would be most appropriate in, but since it deals with members of the forum I figured Reputation would be best.  If not, mods can feel free to move it or suggest where I can move it to.

I've been reading Ben Mezrich's book Bitcoin Billionaires, and while I've found it to be generally unsatisfactory so far (I'm only 65 pages in, and the first mention of bitcoin was somewhere around page 55), I just came across a mention of bitcointalk in the context of Laszlo buying that 10k BTC pizza delivery.  The book mentions that the person who had the pizzas delivered from Papa John's was a member who went by the username jercos.  I don't know where that thread is located in which the pizza deal was sealed, and I'm not even sure how to go about searching for it (hopefully someone can put a link here), but I did search for "jercos" in the member search page and came up with no results.

Was there a member named jercos here?  The book mentions his real name, too.  Anybody know how Ben Mezrich came across his real identity?  My first thought would be that he interviewed Laszlo Hanyecz, but who knows?  There's no notation of anything like that in the book.  Some authors cite every source of information in each chapter at the end of the book, but not this author. 

This is just to satisfy my curiosity and maybe have a discussion on the members involved.  I wasn't even aware of bitcoin in 2010 (though I was aware of the pizza purchase prior to reading Mezrich's book) and certainly don't know much about what transpired between the two individuals.  I've seen that thread bumped a few times--and linked to in other threads--but I never paid that much attention.

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[Little Mouse]

Pizza for bitcoins- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0
jercos is mentioned by laszlo in the same thread while ensuring the deal was done- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195#msg1195

Edit- Also don't forget that, back then, it was possible to post anonymously. So, it's possible that jercos has no account. Need to dig more.

Edit2-
According to the below quoted post, "jercos" didn’t have any bitcointalk id.

Pizzas was sold by Jeremy Sturdivant, known by the nickname Jercos (he did not have a bitcointalk profile, this profile is from IRC (Internet Relay Chat)).

Edit3-
Maybe a good read for you. Coindesk interview with laszlo, I had read it few months back, so I can't remember exactly if it has all the information you are looking for- https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/05/22/10-years-after-laszlo-hanyecz-bought-pizza-with-10k-bitcoin-he-has-no-regrets/

[Hhampuz]

Pizza for bitcoins? thread. No post by a user named "jercos" so deal likely happened in PM, the user may have gone by "jercos" while having a completely different forum username. One of those things we'll never really know which just adds to the excitement

On another note, has anyone ever looked into the possibility of laszlo being Satoshi?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Pizza for bitcoins- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0
jercos is mentioned by laszlo in the same thread while ensuring the deal was done- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195#msg1195

Beautiful, thank you!  So it's in the Marketplace section, then.  That wouldn't have been my first guess, as obvious as it seems, because I didn't think that section existed back in 2010 (though I suppose it could have been moved if I'm right, which I'm probably not).  I'm going to read through that thread right now, but it looks like the deal was done off-forum.  And yes, I'm sure many of you know that, but again, I never really paid attention to the pizza thread before.

Pizza for bitcoins? thread. No post by a user named "jercos" so deal likely happened in PM, the user may have gone by "jercos" while having a completely different forum username. One of those things we'll never really know which just adds to the excitement

The book mentions that "They'd finalized the deal over Internet Relay Chat (IRC)" (that's from the book), but I thought they communicated at least somewhat on the forum.  I guess not.  And I'm still wondering how jercos's real name was discovered, though it probably wouldn't be too difficult for a well-known author writing a history of bitcoin's big personalities.

Edit:  Question: how do I quote posts from the pizza thread, since it's locked?  I want to include the members' usernames and dates and so forth, and I'm not sure how to do that.

[NeuroticFish]

Indeed, the name is there in the relevant post.

I just want to report that I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.

Pictures: http://heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/

Thanks jercos!

But that day nobody posted that he would have been actually ordering.
Maybe theymos could tell if that name came up in laszlo's PM, but I wouldn't make too much hopes.

[Despairo]

The real name of jercos is Jeremy Sturdivant, but there's no exact name on this forum.

jercos said he know Laszlo on IRC especially in freenode based on this article https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/index/jercosinterview

[Little Mouse]

Edit:  Question: how do I quote posts from the pizza thread, since it's locked?  I want to include the members' usernames and dates and so forth, and I'm not sure how to do that.

Check out this- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5204486.0

[Selingkuhan]

interview "Bitcoin pizza guy" Laszlo Hanyecz.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1129028818977665024

sunting + Btc wallet addre Laszlo : https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1XPTgDRhN8RFnzniWCddobD9iKZatrvH4

[The Sceptical Chymist]

LOL.  Notice the last post in the pizza thread.  Some member quoted a post I made in it, which has apparently been deleted.  How did that happen?  I remember posting there, but it was a long time ago and I'd forgotten all about it.

Another thing about the pizza thread is that it got spammed pretty heavily by newbies toward the end of its life before it got locked.  That's unfortunate, but it's probably for the best that it was locked, else it would keep getting bumped from now until the end of time.  Also interesting is that someone complained about a necrobump back in 2011 (which I don't know how to quote, since the thread is locked) *let's see if this works*.  

necrophiles!

Yet another interesting aspect is that mods were obviously not as strict way back in 2010-11, because there are a lot of very low-value posts that didn't add anything to the thread.  This was before signature campaigns, though, so that shouldn't be surprising.

A+!

interview "Bitcoin pizza guy" Laszlo Hanyecz.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1129028818977665024

I don't click on Twitter links.  Any chance you could quote it?

[Selingkuhan]

~

interview "Bitcoin pizza guy" Laszlo Hanyecz.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1129028818977665024

I don't click on Twitter links.  Any chance you could quote it?

I quote this link:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-who-spent-millions-worth-of-bitcoin-on-pizza-60-minutes-2019-05-16/
I don't know which one is correct, there are many sites that discuss it. but he is a living witness, as described in the video.

[YOSHIE]

@The Pharmacist, I've seen about the jercos pizza & Bitcoin story, someone has summed up all the books with the title:

Did Jercos become rich? Continuation of the story of two pizzas..

I will try to find open it for you, what is this you are looking for.

Topic: Legendary profiles of bitcointalk.

№8
Did Jercos become rich? Continuation of the story of two pizzas..  

8 years ago, the programmer Laszlo Hanyecz, with forum nickname laszlo, made the first-ever known purchase for bitcoins, he bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins.  Pizzas was sold by Jeremy Sturdivant, known by the nickname Jercos (he did not have a bitcointalk profile, this profile is from IRC (Internet Relay Chat)).

Later each year on May 22, the bitcoin community began to celebrate "Bitcoin Pizza Day".

I think Laszlo Hanyecz  do not regrets about  purchase, since he said that later he cashed all his bitcoins when the price reached one dollar, then he was able to buy himself a new computer.

According to the seller of pizza - Jercos, who at that time was 19 years old, he sold his bitcoins when its walue increased ten times, that is for $ 400. Most likely, judging by the history of transactions, he did so in July 2010, just at that time bitcoin increased in price by 10 times, from $ 0.008 BTC to $ 0.08 for BTC. Jercos now works as an engineer-developer of Inovonics Inc, the company is engaged in radio equipment.

Here is the transaction for 10 000 BTC:
https://blockchain.info/tx/a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48d

In general, as I thought, most of the bitcoin millionaires became them only because they did not keep track of BTC growth, and those who kept in the course of events earned a little.

Laszlo Hanyecz continued his business, 8 years ago he proved that bitcoin can be used as a currency, but in 2017 it was again questioned, as the price for the transaction sometimes reached $ 200. In 2018, he again proved that you can buy pizza for bitcoins, using the lightning network, he spent 0.00649 BTC for two pizzas, or $ 67, and the price for the transaction was 6 cents.

[tranthidung]

BitcoinFX is one of earliest members on the forum and he has still been actively on the forum.

I don't know whether he is jercos but it seems BitcoinFX is jercos.

Pizzas, don't talk to me about Pizzas ...

Thanks for the trade BitcoinFX!

Your welcome laszlo ! ( delayed response - lol ) I hope you enjoyed your Pizza

Thanks also to everyone else who has used my BitcoinFX Exchange.

...snip...

Is this information accurate? I don't know  

• Is @BitcoinFX the account of @jercos on the forum?
• Is @BitcoinFX ordered two pizzas and is @jercos simply a pizza deliver?

The next day, user "jercos" responded and ordered him two pizzas, for which he received the promised 10 thousand BTC at his wallet.

Pizzas was sold by Jeremy Sturdivant, known by the nickname Jercos (he did not have a bitcointalk profile, this profile is from IRC (Internet Relay Chat)).

[Little Mouse]

tranthidung, I don’t think laszlo talked about the pizza trade because he posted this in BitcoinFX's exchange service thread which refers to trade in his exchange for bitcoin.
And this quote is what you possibly have missed from that thread-

BitcoinFX, I requested an exchange, however the 'Your Bitcoin address' field would not accept a bitcoin address - it would only let me continue if I put an email address in there.

[hugeblack]

Bitcoin Pizza Day is one of the few events that has been well documented because both parties did not prefer privacy, so if you listen to the interview conducted by Laszlo, you will discover that jercos did not register an account in the forum and that they communicated outside this fourm.
I also read that jercos was not selling pizza or working in it, but rather he bought it in order to get bitcoin.

Things have changed dramatically. In about 10 years from that date, the value of one Bitcoin has become very expensive.

[KingsDen]

Wow! What a great forum I am into. I watched his interview
After watching the interview, I was curious to know if he used this forum as the earliest forum of cryptocurrencies. I kicked my curiosity and moved on.
Thanks @The Pharmacist for this thread. I was able to access the original thread but couldn't comment on it. I wished I was part of the history. I don't need to worry, who knows whether I am making history already in the forum, 10yrs today will tell.
The famous pizza buyer's identity was not hidden, could there be a way that the admins could contact him to atleast visit this forum once again, it will surely give us a rare moment of thrilling. He stopped using the forum 4yrs ago, not quite long though.
Did people like;
Hal Finney
Mike Hearn
also post here?

[Little Mouse]

Did people like;
Hal Finney
Mike Hearn
also post here?

None of them are active in the forum anymore. In fact, Hal Finney is died already in 2014. And Mike Hearn isn't active anymore since 2016. Most of the old people aren’t active anymore, some left us and having rest in peace while some are just not active here.
BitcoinFX is the oldest member active here if I'm correct. His UID=30, older than theymos=35.

[rhomelmabini]

The famous pizza buyer's identity was not hidden, could there be a way that the admins could contact him to atleast visit this forum once again, it will surely give us a rare moment of thrilling. He stopped using the forum 4yrs ago, not quite long though.
Did people like;
Hal Finney
Mike Hearn
also post here?

Want to expand your curiosity George? Well, you can visit this exhilarating thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4322078.0 made and compiled by one and only @xtraelv and others who suggested (kudos). You can find on the second post about the notable people that been here in the early days of crypto. Savor it!

[_Miracle]

I've been reading Ben Mezrich's book Bitcoin Billionaires, and while I've found it to be generally unsatisfactory so far (I'm only 65 pages in, and the first mention of bitcoin was somewhere around page 55), I just came across a mention of bitcointalk in the context of Laszlo buying that 10k BTC pizza delivery.  

I might have some of the links to youtube videos of him talking about it if you like---
I was never 100% sure it was him (taking everything mainstream bitcoin with a grain of salt).

I've Audibled:
Life After Google
The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy
By: George Gilder
Based on Gilder's other books I thought I'd like it more. It has a chapter where he "interviews" Satoshi but it's mainly snippets of internet chats (some you can just read on the forum). I don't know why but it bugs me a little when people try to out Satoshi :-)




Would you let us know what you think of the book you're reading when you finish?