[News Terms] First Physical Transaction Commemoration... 'Bitcoin Pizza Day'

Ordered Two Pizzas with '10,000 Bitcoin' in 2010
Domestic Coin Exchanges Hold 'Pizza Day' Commemorative Events

Domestic virtual asset exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, and Korbit are holding various events on May 22 to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Bitcoin Pizza Day originated from the event when American programmer Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins on May 22, 2010.

After Bitcoin first appeared in 2009, Hanyecz succeeded in mass mining bitcoins using GPU (graphics processing unit) technology. However, he thought, "No matter how many bitcoins I have, if no one accepts them, they are useless."

Pizza. Photo by Pixabay

So, on May 18, 2010, he posted on an online community called the Bitcoin Forum, saying, "I want to see if I can order pizza with Bitcoin," and offered to pay 10,000 bitcoins, equivalent to $40 at the time, for two pizzas.

Four days later, on the afternoon of the 22nd, a netizen accepted the 10,000 bitcoins and ordered pizza using US dollars, delivering it to Hanyecz. This was the first real-world transaction using coins, occurring one and a half years after Bitcoin appeared online on January 3, 2009.

However, many people still remain skeptical about whether coins can truly be recognized as real currency in the global financial sector. Bitcoin's image was significantly damaged in 2011 when it was used as a major payment method for weapons and drug transactions in illegal online markets.

Meanwhile, to commemorate the day Bitcoin was first used as a real-world transaction method, Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, will give pizza coupons to the first 2,023 people who deposit 0.001 bitcoins using the direct withdrawal function to the event-specific deposit address designated by Upbit from 2:00 PM to 11:59 PM today (22nd).

Bithumb will hold a Pizza Day event from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on the same day. By registering the coupon code posted on the Bithumb Cafe notice board, the first 100 people each hour, totaling 1,000 people, will receive pizza coupons worth 25,000 KRW. Korbit is giving Domino's Pizza gifticons to 522 customers who traded more than 100,000 KRW cumulatively from the 20th to the 22nd through a lottery. For detailed event information, please refer to the notices of each exchange.