Laszlo Hanyecz is a Bitcoin legend

Greetings,

Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian here, back this week to unbox the story of the Bitcoiner who sparked the entire Bitcoin economy: Laszlo Hanyecz.

You’ve probably already heard of the $2.4 billion pizza purchase by Laszlo, but it’s importance in Bitcoin lore is often overlooked, since it was the first moment Bitcoin was used in everyday trade. Something we’re still striving for today..

But before we go on, you’d be silly not to sign up to Casa. (You don’t want your Bitcoin to join the more than 4 million BTC lost forever!).

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From Programmer to Pioneer

Laszlo’s journey starts off not with a slice, but a desire to help more people run Bitcoin’s software.

In April 2010, while Bitcoin was trading for less than a penny, the coder from Florida discovered the protocol and realized something was amiss: it only ran on Windows. 

What does a programmer do when he sees a problem? He solves it. So, Laszlo translated the Windows-only source code into MacOS and within a week, users were running it on their Apple machines. Many think that in 2010 the Apple world ran on flashy Macbook Pros, but check out the OG PC Laszlo coded on, an iBook G4:

Laszlo’s contributions didn’t go unnoticed. 

He quickly climbed the ranks to become one Satoshi’s most trusted contributors, and actively engaged in the BitcoinTalk forum’s discussions about the protocol’s value prop and the mechanics of how payments work–with none other than Bitcoin’s mysterious creator.

A not-so-small footnote: people nowadays have no idea the treasure trove of ideas on the BitcoinTalk forum. Most of the things we are discussing today were openly talked about in those early days, on a platform that rivals the earliest versions of the web.

I’d highly recommend Bitcoin OGs and newcoiners to check it out. 

Back to Laszlo, he dove head first into the discussion about Bitcoin. He pushed back against the naysayers that said the network couldn’t scale, and added value coding wherever he could. 

Even though most know him as Bitcoin pizza man, his foresight and technical acumen made him one of the first five developers to work on Bitcoin, alongside people like Martti Malmi, whose email exchange with Satoshi recently became public. 

Laszlo’s support to the system earned him none-other than Satoshi’s credit. Imagine, getting praised by Satoshi for your work in testing and reviewing the third version of the Bitcoin software.

I reckon he must get goosebumps when he thinks back to that time. 

But while for you and me maybe adding code was enough, it wasn’t for Laszlo. 

He became the first user to mine Bitcoin with GPUs, which marked a new era for mining. Before Laszlo, it was your everyday computer doing the hard work of solving the difficulty adjustment, while now, users needed specialized video-game hardware. 

The move, while innovative, was wildly profitable (at least by today’s dollars). Laszlo managed to mine 35,000 BTC in just two months, and according to him, he was making over 700 BTC a day.

At one point, his wallet topped 80,000 BTC.

Accumulating savage amounts of sats drew an alarming eye from Satoshi, however. 

Concerned about maintaining a level playing field, Satoshi emailed Laszlo, asking him to reconsider his approach. “I don’t mean to sound like a socialist, I don’t care if wealth is concentrated, but for now, we get more growth by giving that money to 100% of the people than giving it to 20%,” he wrote.

Laszlo heeded his advice. But instead of bluntly offering his Bitcoin back, he came up with a plan. One that would feed his belly along with his ideals. So he picked an idea off Satoshi’s shelf–the official Bitcoin FAQ–and made a historic offer:

At the time, his offer was worth just $41. I’ve read, written, and talked about this story so many times, and it still baffles me when I think of the numbers–and what it sparked. 

Three days after his post, a 19 year-old student in California named Jeremy “Jercos” Sturdivant answered his call. He ordered a pizza from Laszlo’s local Papa John’s and was the fortunate recipient 10,000 BTC.

And just like that, history was made. Here’s a visualization of what a world-changing event looks like: 

Not what you’d expect, right?

The image of Laszlo and his kids is iconic. At today’s prices, each pie would be worth about $350 million, with each slice costing over $40 million. That’s more of a mouthful than the pizza probably was. 

But two pizza’s wasn’t going to cut it. He made it abundantly clear on the forum that this was an “open offer” eventually spending 40,000 BTC on pizza – amounting to a whopping $3 billion at today’s prices. 

After his active involvement in Bitcoin’s early days, adding value that would change the course of history, Laszlo eventually left Bitcoin. 

Not forever, however. In a full-circle moment, Laszlo got back involved, once again with pizza slices and cardboard boxes. He bought two pies in 2018, only this time using the Lightning Network–another historic first. 

Laszlo holds two distinctions in my book: buying the most expensive pizza in history, and more importantly, kickstarting the Bitcoin economy. 

What’s brilliant is that every 22nd of May, people around the world get together to celebrate that a man, more than ten years ago, bought two pizzas with magic internet money. It’s a longstanding tradition that will hold the test of time, and end up in history books. Pretty wild.

And I also think Laszlo’s story reminds us that sometimes the most significant contributions don’t come from grand gestures, but rather simple acts motivated by curiosity, innovation, and a desire to see something new.

“I just thought it would be really cool to see if I could trade this open source internet money into a real world good.”

Until next time,

Rizzo

P.S. You should click the image below.