2024-05-11 11:21:42
In 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. For people without Bitcoin Bitcoin would not be what it is today.
May 22 is the 14th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, the day an item was paid for with Bitcoin for the first time. In this context, Laszlo Hanyecz and Jeremy Sturdivant made history. But they are only two of many people who made Bitcoin what it is today. List (incomplete):
The inventor
Wer Satoshi Nakamoto is unknown. It was only visible on the Internet. On October 31, 2008, when the world was facing a severe financial crisis, he published a document entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” in which he presented a payment system that should be done completely. without banks and other intermediaries. It should be network operated and secured cryptographically (through encryption) and energy consumption. Nakamoto sent his white paper to a mailing list of so-called cypherpunks, people who fight for online privacy and against digital surveillance. The response was initially limited; On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto finally launched Bitcoin and created the first block, the Genesis block. He enthusiastically participated in Bitcoin mining and made about one million Bitcoin (which is worth 58 billion euros today). In 2011 he announced that he wanted to devote himself to other things, disappeared from the scene and never touched his Bitcoin. A myth was born.
There is a Mentor
Hal Finney software developer who, together with Phil Zimmermann, developed the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption technology. Although many other cypherpunks were skeptical of Satoshi Nakamoto’s proposal (there had already been several failed attempts at decentralized digital currencies), Finney became interested and helped Satoshi improve his software. After the latter launched Bitcoin and was the only network participant for a week, Finney joined and announced to a wider audience on Twitter on January 11, 2009: “Run Bitcoin”. When there were more participants, Finney stopped mining Bitcoin because he was disturbed by the loud noise of the fans. A year later, he learned that Bitcoin could now be traded for dollars and secure his coins. He died in 2014. The Bitcoin community is still celebrating January 11 today as Bitcoin Run Day, including current events. Some think Hal Finney was Satoshi Nakamoto.
Cyprus
US mathematician and computer programmer Eric Hughes is not directly related to Bitcoin, but he wrote “Cypherpunk Manifesto” in 1993. In it he defined privacy as the ability to communicate with the world selectively. He also summed up what the movement that later led to Bitcoin stood for: “Cypherpunks write code.” They don’t ask, they register and create facts. At that time it was about cryptographic technologies, later about Bitcoin: both are software that ultimately cannot be banned.
Proof of Work
Nakamoto didn’t have to completely invent Bitcoin out of thin air, there were people who did the groundwork. Around Adam back, British computer scientist, hacker and cypherpunk. Back invent Hashcash, a type of spam filter, in the 1990s. The idea was that mailers had to solve easy math problems. If one wants to send millions of emails, the effort or costs would be too high. So Adam Back invented “Proof of Work”, which Nakamoto used for Bitcoin. Anyone who wants to participate in the Bitcoin network has to invest energy to solve calculation tasks. Since other participants in the network can check the result, fraud does not pay off because you would have spent energy in vain. Some think Adam Back is Satoshi Nakamoto, which he denies. He founded the company Blockstream, which is active in Bitcoin mining and development.
Order a pizza
The programmer and pioneer of Bitcoin Laszlo Haniecz she was asked in 2010 if Bitcoin could ever be a means of payment if no one paid for goods or services with it. He asked in an IT forum if someone wanted to deliver him two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin. No one answered for days. When Hanyecz asked, the then 19-year-old took pity Jeremy Sturdivant, he bought two pizzas from Papa John’s and they were delivered on May 22. In the end, neither of them got rich. But Hanyecz didn’t want that at all, he made a few more deals like this to help Bitcoin get off the ground and now works as an employee in the IT sector. Sturdivant soon spent his Bitcoin on video games and travel. Some people think that both of them must be angry today that they spent the Bitcoin. On the other hand, if nobody ever paid Bitcoin, who knows if it would be so valuable today.
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