Twelve years to the day of the world’s first Bitcoin pizza purchase, the celebrations still continue for what has become a slice of crypto culture.
Pizza DAO, the decentralized blockchain project seeking to unite the global community of pizza fanatics with the technological potential of Web3, are celebrating Sunday’s Bitcoin Pizza Day in authentic style.
On Sunday, the project will host commemorative events at 100 pizzerias in over 75 countries around the world, including the United States, Argentina, South Korea, Ethiopia, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and more.
Alongside a nonfungible token (NFT) drop and charitable campaign, the events will attract a number of supporters including 13-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani, Seth Green, Steve Aoki, the Dogecoin team, and comedians Cheech and Chong, among others.
Bitcoin Pizza Day has become a permanent fixture and cultural highlight in the crypto calendar since the 2017 bull market resurrected and glorified the tale of misfortune from the blockchain archives.
On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz’s published a 153-word post on the Bitcoin Talk message board requesting for someone to either home cook and deliver, or simply pick up two large pizzas from a nearby takeout, stating:
“I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day […] If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal.”
The Jacksonville, Florida native was very particular about his topping requirements, writing: “I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc., just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that. I also like regular cheese pizzas which may be cheaper to prepare or otherwise acquire.”
User ender_x tried to persuade Hanyecz that his money could be better spent elsewhere, stating: “10,000… That’s quite a bit.. you could sell those on https://www.bitcoinmarket.com/ for $41USD right now..”
But Hanyecz was persistent in his endeavor and finally — seven hours later — successfully traded 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) for the pizzas. A “great milestone reached” one user replied.
At the time of writing, almost twelve years to the day, that pizza transaction is worth $298 million.
Related: We Have All Had A ‘Pizza Day Moment’ — What’s Yours?
Hanyecz’s story financially epitomizes the parabolic growth of Bitcoin and the entire sector across the past decade, but aside from its entertainment and comedic value, for many market participants, it represents the necessity for humility and appreciation as well as conviction in early adoption.
Cointelegraph spoke to Snax, the founder of PizzaDAO, for a broader insight into their intentions and ambitions in celebrating the monumental day:
“Web3 is an opportunity to reinvent our financial realities on planet earth, to build consensus, and to dream big. What better way to practice worldwide teamwork than to throw a global pizza party together?”
PizzaDAO will seek to bring “local independent businesses on-chain” through the utilization of their open-source Pizzanomics crowdfunding model. A generation nonfungible token (NFT) collection denoting different variations of pizza boxes released by Rare Pizzas will fund the events.
The project was recently featured in Cointelegraph’s Market Report by Benton Yaun, the creative lead at CT Studio, as one of the five most prominent decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in the space.
American actor Seth Green, known for starring in movies such as Austin Powers and The Italian Job as well as being the voice of Chris Griffin on Family Guy, among other producing and writing roles, is an advocate of PizzaDAO and will be one of the event’s most influential supporters.
In conversation with Cointelegraph, Green excitedly stated that: “I’m all for things that bring people together, and pizza is one of those things. Helping throw a global pizza party that everyone can share? I’m here for it!”
