Did Laszlo Hanyecz see it as 10,000 BTC or as $41?

[Zoomic]

22nd May is widely esteemed in the bitcoin network as it has found its place in the history. It was actually the day the famous and innocent looking Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 pizzas with his bitcoin (10,000 btc).

While I have listened the interview of Laszlo and he did confirm and reaffirm that he has no regret giving out his bitcoins as high as 10,000 of it just for 2 pizzas. In his words he said "Someone has to start it all". Congratulations to him that he started it.

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

[Upgrade00]

How one sees Bitcoin is useless except it gets traded for something else. At the time, 2 pizzas was approximately worth 10,000 bitcoins, today, 2 pizzas are worth a couple of sats or one-seventh of one Bitcoin. Ten years from now, it might be worth 1 sat or less.
The value is still very much speculative, but it's those that are willing to use it as a currency that create inroads for more adoption.

Obviously he had more than $10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy.

10,000 units of it, not it's worth in USD.

[Zoomic]

Obviously he had more than $10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy.

10,000 units of it, not it's worth in USD.

Thanks for the observation and correction.  We are used to measuring btc value with fiat.

[Nwada001]

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 

[so98nn]

Or may be he never measured it in fiat currency at all. He might just have tried it out how someone would react to bitcoin as mode of payment. He ended up exchanging it with the guy which means either the second person was knowledgeable enough to understand what it is and might have taken efforts to install the wallet or app available at that time and grab the opportunity to get those bitcoins.

They both literally done bitcoin exchange for the commodity and thus adding real value to the bitcoin. Just love it how they did it without even having greed for bitcoins fiat value. At that time no one really had an idea whether it will work or not?

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

.
That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

The same way you are seeing 1 BTC to be $28k, that's the exact same way Laszlo saw 10,000 BTC to be $41, which was in no doubt it's worth 13yrs ago. Because thou it may be looking too big for you today because of how it's value has skyrocketed within the past few years, but the fact remains that anybody would have done the same thing he did 13yrs ago by selling his 10,000 BTC for just mere 2 pizzas.

So may I ask @ O.P this just one question..

Between 1 Bitcoin or $100,000. Which one will you choose??.. (I guess $100k, right?)

So how about in the next 20yrs from today and the price of 1 Bitcoin may have skyrocketed to $1million per BTC, will you ever regret ever choosing $100k over 1 BTC?? ... Yes or No

[coolcoinz]

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

Fine, it can be as you're saying, but what does it change? Should we never buy anything because it could be worth more? It probably will be, but we have our lives to live and money is just a tool that allows us to do it. It's all spendable and should be spent.

To be clear, I'm against selling bitcoin for fiat, but I'm all for spending it on goods and services.


Let me ask you a question. If you knew that bitcoin will appreciate 5% every year, so holding a million USD in bitcoin would give you additional 50k to spend every year, would you ever sell your bitcoin? That 50k of profit would produce another 2,5k next year and you'd have more and more money, eventually falling into a spiral of greed. What's all that money if you can't be happy with it and buy what you need? Laszlo wanted pizza and that made him happy. He also made history. Will you ever? Think about it.

[franky1]

That being said, my emphasis is on how Laszlo saw and valued his bitcoin as of then. Obviously he had more than 10,000 bitcoin for him to offer to buy. I don't think he bought with his whole bitcoin. Meanwhile I read somewhere that Laszlo earned upto 100,000 bitcoin while mining with other early progrmmers and adopters of bitcoin.

I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

OR he seen it as PIZZA

much like people view their bitcoin as future lambo's or mansions

[Dave1]

Of course he saw it a worth $41, because he wanted to test if bitcoin can be used as a payment scheme, which is what Satoshi design it initially. Although in the years to come, it become an asset that we trade and then the values goes off the roof.

And same thing right now when we used bitcoin to buy or at least used it to purchase something, whether p2p or some 3rd party in between.

[Faisal2202]

Everything needs a start either with loss or profit. he was a programmer which made him intelligent enough to understand the consequences he could face and I think that's why he is cool and ok with his decisions, well his transaction is considered as "First BTC transaction" well, did you know where he placed an order to sell his 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas?

He made a post on Bitcointalk by Pizza for bitcoins? and one of the community member named as jercos bought him 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Here you can read the post made by laszlo says,

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

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

Thanks jercos!

Well reading this thread will give you goosebumps so read it if you have a strong heart hehe.

The link to the pictures is not working on my side maybe it's invalid now. Well, all I can say What is not in luck, you will never get. There could be a lot of events just like laszlos but only the first one will be remembered same the first man to step foot on the moon is Neil Armstrong but who knows the 5th, or 10th, or 20th one?

Only He who initiates is remembered because he is the one taking all risks and has to face good or bad consequences. At that time idk what he was thinking because he can buy pizzas without BTC but why he did that maybe that's the sacrifice BTC needs to be adopted as a payment method maybe that sacrifice kept up the trust of people in BTC which take it to the height of the $69k. It's like BTC needs blood and Sir Laszlo gave it.

[milewilda]

Of course he saw it a worth $41, because he wanted to test if bitcoin can be used as a payment scheme, which is what Satoshi design it initially. Although in the years to come, it become an asset that we trade and then the values goes off the roof.

And same thing right now when we used bitcoin to buy or at least used it to purchase something, whether p2p or some 3rd party in between.

If ever this thing didnt happen then we dont really have that historical event on how Bitcoin had been firstly been used up as a payment method. For sure he do sees with those amounts as $41 and not that 10k btc
or something that mind off about on whats the price of it on the future.Yes, it does really give out that kind of regret feeling considering on how much the value of those coins today
but well whats done is done and this one remains out to be historic on Bitcoins history which we know that it cant be forgotten.

[Pokapoka124]

What’s your point? We should all hodl and never spend our bitcoins. How will bitcoin reach global adoption as a currency if bitcoiners are not willing to spend it on goods and services. Obviously he saw the bitcoins for what it was worth at the time. If he had a crystal ball to see the future he wouldn’t have made that transaction. I applaud Laszlo for being one of the first persons who used bitcoin as means of payment as Satoshi intended.

[n0ne]

He never considered it $41/10k bitcoin, all he wanted was to know whether bitcoin could buy anything. Through our forum he tried and got the answer. He posted it knowing that no service had bitcoin acceptance by then. With that incident people understood it had got value and further it started to increase as the people's interest over it as well as the usage as alternate currency and for transaction needs increased.

Till date the person who took the order and delivered him with the Pizza weren't known to the outer world much. His words were important, because with what mind he bought and whether he kept hold or used for something else need to be known. Jeremy Sturdivant have used it to spend on traveling around USA with his girlfriend. So, both have done it for some reason and printed the names in the history of bitcoin.

[drwhobox]

Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 

He saw that amount of bitcoin as 41$, so he spent 41$ on buying pizza, not 10,000 btc. It does not mean that he only has 41$ worth of bitcoins also, he can have more bitcoins which he stores somewhere else. But I believe he had these 10,000btc left in his wallet and he wanted to test if he can spend them.

[blockman]

It's true that many of us see our bitcoin tied with USD but what we can do with that? Since its value is depending on that, it is what it is and that can't be changed.
But these days, it's important to look at that matter to see of how much bitcoin we've got and that should be looked at, like btc/btc or btc = btc. And that's how we're seeing the importance of it on these times because in the future, the price, the value itself will increase and that's the reason why we're looking at with that valuing because soon we may value anything by just having it through satoshis and not depending on dollar value.

[ChiBitCTy]

I'm not sure that Laszlo had either in mind.  First off, fun fact, Laszlo actually spent over 30,000 bitcoins in total for pizza.  I believe he made at least 3 deals in total for bitcoin for pizza trade.

As Laszlo stated, it had to start somewhere.  Someone had to be the first to transact, so I'm not sure he really saw it as either 10,000 bitcoins or 40 bucks.  He just saw it as a way to get thing started, as a way to turn bitcoin in to a currency, a digital virtual currency that solved double spending. Thats a huge deal!

[eaLiTy]

~
I believe that Laszlo saw his 10,000 bitcoin as $41 and not as 10,000 BTC.  AND that is how many of us see bitcoin today and including myself. In 10yrs time, we could have thousands of Laszlos among bitcoiners, but the difference is that we won't make history as Laszlo did.

You need to remember the context, 50 BTC as block reward and Laszlo was mining with Nvidia 9800 GTX on his Mac OS and no one in the early days expected the market to explode like we see now. Gavin had a faucet giving away 5BTCitcoin per claim so that people would start using BTCitcoin and you would see many selling for cents in the old forum.

For context this is the transaction ID of 10,000 BTC done by Laszlo to Jeremy Sturdivant for the pizza: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/transactions/btc/a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48d

PS: You cannot replace OG  .

[Ever-young]

Before one can boldly use $10 to buy something, that means the person has about $20–100 left over for him. 
No man can spend all his wealth just to grab some pieces of pizza.
Before he made an offer to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, I believe he had way more than that to sacrifice. When a man uses something as payment, it shows that he believes in it, even though Bitcoin has no value attached to it. 

He saw that amount of bitcoin as 41$, so he spent 41$ on buying pizza, not 10,000 btc. It does not mean that he only has 41$ worth of bitcoins also, he can have more bitcoins which he stores somewhere else. But I believe he had these 10,000btc left in his wallet and he wanted to test if he can spend them.

I think you both are practically on the same page, unless for the fact that one of you is saying the purchaser is holding more than 10,000 BTC and the other claim's it's just 10,000 left over BTC use to text if it can run a successful transaction.
I believe he have more than 10,000 btc for him to be able to use it, means he spent little to see what the value of the others will be since a price of 41$ was tag as the value of the 10,000 BTC since that's what the 2 pizza worths

[pixie85]

He wanted to show that bitcoin can be spent and that's what mattered to him. I feel like it was all fun and they didn't know that bitcoin would once be worth more than a thousand dollars.

At that time people were dreaming about 1USD and many thought it to be an unbreakable level, a dream price. For bitcoiners back then $1 was like a million for us now.

I always envy people who are happy with what they have and if you give them a slice of pizza they won't complain that it could've been a 2 course meal.

[Hispo]

He obviously saw the value of those Bitcoins in term of the FIAT equivalent, he was seeking for someone to trade a pizza for those coins, after all. In order for that to happen, he needed to offer a quantity in BTC which was competitive in comparison to the FIAT value of those pizzas.

The same way you may need to sell some Bitcoin to buy a pizza nowadays, you would look those satoshis for their FIAT value at the moment of the transaction.

Assuming you won't keep track of the price of those same satoshis when the price increase the next week, that is.