6 ms·

Pizza for bitcoins? [2010]

45 points by sgpl 13y ago

Tarang 13y ago
> So nobody wants to buy me pizza? Is the bitcoin amount I'm offering too low? Got to laugh seeing this today.
- atmosx 13y ago
  Sure today yes, but you have to put that into context.
manuelflara 13y ago
He was offering 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas. At today's exchange rates that's close to $10 million. I didn't bother to read the whole thread, but if he did eventually buy them, I hope they were at least delicious.
- shawabawa3 13y ago
  He did buy them, and although a lot of people probably think he's an idiot for it, bear in mind he is most likely a multimillionaire if not a billionaire by now.
  - adventured 13y ago
    He's not even remotely close to being a billionaire, a pretty hefty exaggeration. That would require that he mined nearly 10% of all bitcoins. He talks about basically having 'thrown away' 40,000+ bitcoins that were easy to mine initially before he stopped and began holding onto what he was mining. It's more likely he's in the $10m to $50m range, assuming he didn't liquidate early into bitcoin's rise.
    - Kiro 13y ago
      No, he is definitely closer to a billion.
    - shawabawa3 13y ago
      > He's not even remotely close to being a billionaire, a pretty hefty exaggeration. That would require that he mined nearly 10% of all bitcoins. My bad, sometimes I forget just how big a billion is
    - swalsh 13y ago
      Still, this is kind of the epitome of spending money to make money. This pizza was one of the first notable examples of people using bitcoin as a currency. It proved the concept. Its not certain had he not spent those bitcoins on the pizza the rest of his minings would be worth much.
idoco 13y ago
BTW this is the pizza he bought- http://www.heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/ http://www.heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/ I hope that at least it was good :) (For $10M)
- sneak 13y ago
  It didn't cost $10M. I was in those IRC channels back then and you could buy thousands of bitcoins for a few bucks. There were only like 200 of us who even knew what they were or valued them in any way.
  - 3pt14159 13y ago
    Man that is crazy. I got in at $1-$10 a coin and I'm worried about it because I talked about it so much back then, but for you guys it must be insane.
nodata 13y ago
So how do these very large bitcoin holders cash out now? Is there somebody that provides a service to slow sell them?
- gibybo 13y ago
  You can set a limit order on your favorite exchange. It will sit there and sell them off for the price you specify as people are willing to buy them. Of course, if anyone is selling them cheaper than you, yours won't sell until theirs are gone. Alternatively you can just place a market order a few times per day for a week. It's more work, but we're really only talking about ~1 minute of work per $200k or so. MtGox handles more than $10M in Bitcoin sales per day and they represent a minority of all exchange volume.
  - dcc1 13y ago
    The problem is getting paid by Mt Gox in dollars, euro etc as many horror stories exist of people not being paid for months or ever Other exchanges would also have similar issues, and would hit you with all sorts of antimoneylaundering questions if you try to withdraw too much
    - imdsm 13y ago
      Increase granularity, decrease risk magnitude.
    - gibybo 13y ago
      Fair enough, but Bitstamp is also doing close to $10M/day. You are probably right about the AML hurdle, but that is orthogonal to needing a service to sell them off slowly for you.
      - dcc1 13y ago
        See here for an example questions they ask personal customers trying too withdraw above certain limit (not sure what it is exactly or what criteria is used to trigger this) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=356026.msg3835542#msg3835542 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=356026.msg3835542#ms... As KYC questionnaire a company has to answer here is alot longer than above, I am not sure if allowed to post it, but it is very thorough
gabemart 13y ago
It's worth bearing in mind that bitcoin might never have reached the position it now holds if early adopters had not spent their coins as freely as they did.
- bradleysmith 13y ago
  Had heard about this story some time last year, this was the conclusion quickly reached at my office. The amount of effect his purchase had on the early adoption of bitcoin is practically immeasurable. Any pain he feels over perceived 'opportunity loss' is effectively him 'taking one for the team', with the team being the bitcoin community. As mentioned elsewhere, I'm sure he did fine having mined early.
- tinco 13y ago
  It's even more valuable to bear in mind that the value of Bitcoin would not be as high as it is now if more people had spend it as freely.
giarc 13y ago
I didn't read the rest of the forum posts, but has there been any update from either party?
- instoftech 13y ago
  Yes. I believe the poster completed at least one transaction and this is the famous "pizza story" in the Bitcoin world.
  - giarc 13y ago
    I should have elaborated a bit. I meant has the person that received the bitcoins providing updates recently (ie. Spending my millions on a private island in the Caribbean).

45 points by sgpl 13y ago

Tarang 13y ago

> So nobody wants to buy me pizza? Is the bitcoin amount I'm offering too low? Got to laugh seeing this today.

atmosx 13y ago
Sure today yes, but you have to put that into context.

manuelflara 13y ago

He was offering 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas. At today's exchange rates that's close to $10 million. I didn't bother to read the whole thread, but if he did eventually buy them, I hope they were at least delicious.

shawabawa3 13y ago
He did buy them, and although a lot of people probably think he's an idiot for it, bear in mind he is most likely a multimillionaire if not a billionaire by now.
- adventured 13y ago
  He's not even remotely close to being a billionaire, a pretty hefty exaggeration. That would require that he mined nearly 10% of all bitcoins. He talks about basically having 'thrown away' 40,000+ bitcoins that were easy to mine initially before he stopped and began holding onto what he was mining. It's more likely he's in the $10m to $50m range, assuming he didn't liquidate early into bitcoin's rise.
  - Kiro 13y ago
    No, he is definitely closer to a billion.
  - shawabawa3 13y ago
    > He's not even remotely close to being a billionaire, a pretty hefty exaggeration. That would require that he mined nearly 10% of all bitcoins. My bad, sometimes I forget just how big a billion is
  - swalsh 13y ago
    Still, this is kind of the epitome of spending money to make money. This pizza was one of the first notable examples of people using bitcoin as a currency. It proved the concept. Its not certain had he not spent those bitcoins on the pizza the rest of his minings would be worth much.

idoco 13y ago

BTW this is the pizza he bought- http://www.heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/ http://www.heliacal.net/~solar/bitcoin/pizza/ I hope that at least it was good :) (For $10M)

sneak 13y ago
It didn't cost $10M. I was in those IRC channels back then and you could buy thousands of bitcoins for a few bucks. There were only like 200 of us who even knew what they were or valued them in any way.
- 3pt14159 13y ago
  Man that is crazy. I got in at $1-$10 a coin and I'm worried about it because I talked about it so much back then, but for you guys it must be insane.

nodata 13y ago

So how do these very large bitcoin holders cash out now? Is there somebody that provides a service to slow sell them?

gibybo 13y ago
You can set a limit order on your favorite exchange. It will sit there and sell them off for the price you specify as people are willing to buy them. Of course, if anyone is selling them cheaper than you, yours won't sell until theirs are gone. Alternatively you can just place a market order a few times per day for a week. It's more work, but we're really only talking about ~1 minute of work per $200k or so. MtGox handles more than $10M in Bitcoin sales per day and they represent a minority of all exchange volume.
- dcc1 13y ago
  The problem is getting paid by Mt Gox in dollars, euro etc as many horror stories exist of people not being paid for months or ever Other exchanges would also have similar issues, and would hit you with all sorts of antimoneylaundering questions if you try to withdraw too much
  - imdsm 13y ago
    Increase granularity, decrease risk magnitude.
  - gibybo 13y ago
    Fair enough, but Bitstamp is also doing close to $10M/day. You are probably right about the AML hurdle, but that is orthogonal to needing a service to sell them off slowly for you.
    - dcc1 13y ago
      See here for an example questions they ask personal customers trying too withdraw above certain limit (not sure what it is exactly or what criteria is used to trigger this) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=356026.msg3835542#msg3835542 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=356026.msg3835542#ms... As KYC questionnaire a company has to answer here is alot longer than above, I am not sure if allowed to post it, but it is very thorough

gabemart 13y ago

It's worth bearing in mind that bitcoin might never have reached the position it now holds if early adopters had not spent their coins as freely as they did.

bradleysmith 13y ago
Had heard about this story some time last year, this was the conclusion quickly reached at my office. The amount of effect his purchase had on the early adoption of bitcoin is practically immeasurable. Any pain he feels over perceived 'opportunity loss' is effectively him 'taking one for the team', with the team being the bitcoin community. As mentioned elsewhere, I'm sure he did fine having mined early.
tinco 13y ago
It's even more valuable to bear in mind that the value of Bitcoin would not be as high as it is now if more people had spend it as freely.

giarc 13y ago

I didn't read the rest of the forum posts, but has there been any update from either party?

instoftech 13y ago
Yes. I believe the poster completed at least one transaction and this is the famous "pizza story" in the Bitcoin world.
- giarc 13y ago
  I should have elaborated a bit. I meant has the person that received the bitcoins providing updates recently (ie. Spending my millions on a private island in the Caribbean).