Bitcoin Pizza Day Story
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5 min read·Jun 15, 2022
In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 Bitcoins at a local pizza restaurant called Papa John’s to buy himself two pizzas. This event is now considered to be one of the most important moments in Bitcoin history, as it is widely considered to be the first “real-world” purchase using cryptocurrency.
Since then, every year on May 22nd, Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world celebrate “Bitcoin Pizza Day” in honour of Hanyecz’s historic purchase. For many, Bitcoin Pizza Day is a reminder of the early days of cryptocurrency when things were much simpler and the community was much smaller. It’s also a day to celebrate how far Bitcoin has come since then and to look forward to its bright future.
Whatever your reason for celebrating, I hope you had a great Bitcoin Pizza Day!
The Genesis
It’s been a while since I posted something about blockchain and what I have been up to this year. One of the things that I have been meaning to do is write about my experience with Blockchain and how it has changed my life.
It has been about 5 years now since 2018 when I made what is considered to be the first token (Ubricoin) to be created in Africa and listed on CoinMarketCap. 5 years in the blockchain space is a long time which means a lot has changed. I will only share a summary of these changes from 2010 to 2021 in terms of technology and community growth, specifically developer community growth.
How Blockchain technology has changed from 2010 to 2021
The first major change was the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. This was followed by several other cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology began to be used for other purposes such as smart contracts. In 2021, there are several different blockchain platforms available, and the use of blockchain technology is growing rapidly.
The most significant change from 2010 to 2021 has been the increasing popularity and use of blockchain technology. In 2010, blockchain was mostly unknown and used only by a few people.
However, by 2021, it is estimated that there are over 30 million blockchain users and the technology is being used for a variety of purposes including payments, smart contracts, and supply chain management.
The increasing popularity of blockchain technology has led to several changes in the way it is used. For example, in the past, blockchain was mostly used for cryptocurrency transactions. However, now it is being used for a variety of other purposes such as smart contracts, supply chain management, and identity management.
As blockchain technology continues to grow in popularity, even more changes will likely occur in the way it is used.
Blockchain developer community growth from 2010 to 2021
The blockchain developer community has grown significantly from 2010 to 2021. According to a report by Blockdata, the number of blockchain developers globally has increased from around 4,000 in 2016 to over 18,000 in 2019.
The report also estimates that the number of blockchain developers had to around 30,000 by 2021.
This growth is largely due to the increasing interest in and adoption of blockchain technology by businesses and organizations around the world.
Since I started working as a Celo Ambassador: Kenya | Developer Relations Evangelist, there has been an increase in the number of smart contracts developers in Kenya unlike in 2018 when I was starting as a developer when there was no local community of solidity developers.
To increase blockchain adoption in the world and more so in Africa, we need to focus more on developer growth. These developers will create solutions which are African Based like what Kotani and Canza Fin are building, making the technology easy for users who have less or No financial/ technical knowledge about blockchain technology.
Celebration Time
This was a first-of-a-kind event and also my first time eating pineapple Pizza. It was held simultaneously in 11 African cities including Nairobi, Kampala, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Ibadan, Lagos, Calabar, Abuja, Ile-Ife and Cape town.
I got to Join others in marking the 12th anniversary of the bitcoin pizza purchase and shared about the Celo blockchain which is a fork of Ethereum — a new blockchain on target to have a Visa scale (1k transactions per second).
It’s also fully EVM compatible proof-of-stake layer-1 protocol, featuring a fast ultralight client and built-in seigniorage stablecoins, collateralized by crypto and natural assets. This means it is easy for developers to migrate smart contracts from the Ethereum blockchain to Celo without writing the smart contract from scratch.
The most exciting part and what I like the most about is its unique features that enable anyone with a smartphone to transact, save, or borrow using their local currency. If you have used KotaniPay or Canza you will surely agree with me that this is the coolest Unique feature of being able to transact using a Feature Phone.
Conclusion
You are probably wondering if I took the time to travel back to May 22nd 2010 what I would do with the 10,000 Bitcoins. Well, we can do a ‘what if… series’ and I know most of us will still be holding on to those Bitcoins and maybe we wouldn’t have all these major milestones we have had.
To me, Bitcoin Pizza Day is one special day since it reminds me that someone took a leap of faith and made a purchase that spark interest in bitcoin and blockchain. Finally, there are breakthroughs and milestones that have been achieved by the pioneers trailblazing in this space in making blockchain adoption, education and development seamless.