Epic! Anderson Cooper to Interview Bitcoin Pizza Guy on 60 Minutes
If the bitcoin pizza guy didn't spend 100,000 bitcoins to buy pizza and other items back in 2010, his investment would be worth $800 million today. | Source: (i) Shutterstock (ii) Shutterstock; Edited by CCN.com
By CCN.com: The bitcoin price may have expanded more than 100% year-to-date, but the crypto community is bummed about today’s declines. There’s no need to fear, however. That mainstream adoption that everybody has been waiting for, it’s about to get real. Bitcoin is being featured on a CBS 60 Minutes segment this weekend, and it’s a bigger spotlight than the industry has thus far seen.
Anderson Cooper interviews Laszlo Hanyecz, who is also known as the “bitcoin pizza guy.” When mainstream America hears about how one early BTC investor blew (depending on how you look at it) a total of 100,000 bitcoins on mostly pizza, an amount that would be worth $800 million at today’s price, they’re either going to jump in head first or run for their lives. The pizza guy is also a hero for proving that everyday transactions using bitcoin could be successful at such an early and critical stage.
Bitcoin on 60 Minutes
You’ve probably heard the bitcoin pizza guy’s story, but it is a lot different when you hear him tell it himself. Hanyecz is famous for purchasing the first pizzas with BTC back in 2010, but he’s infamous for spending 10,000 bitcoins to do it. There’s even a day named after the transaction – May 22 is “Bitcoin Pizza Day” in crypto land. In all, he says he doled out some 100,000 bitcoins on pizza and more. At the time, the bitcoin price was trading for less than one cent. Today, the bitcoin price is hovering at nearly $8,000. That will take the sting out of today’s minor 4% decline.
Here’s an excerpt from the 60 Minutes interview:
Anderson Cooper: “That’s $800 million. You spent about $800 million on pizza?”
Hanyecz: ” “Well, if you look at today’s exchange rate.”
Anderson Cooper: “Are there nights you wake up “where you think, ‘I could have had $800 million… if I hadn’t bought those pizzas?'”
Hanyecz: “I think thinking like that is… not really good for me.”
While it might seem like a cringe-worthy moment, and it is one that is clearly difficult for the early bitcoin investor, it is really an important lesson for anyone in crypto – newbies or not – to learn. As trader and analyst Luke Martin tweeted:
“Whatever you do, remember to move slow and save some bitcoin for the year 2050.”
Early Innings
The 60 Minutes interview is a moment of truth for many in the crypto ecosystem. They know that millions of Americans will now be introduced to this peer-to-peer digital currency that has taken the economy by storm. Bitcoin will no longer be a buzz word that they overhear at Starbucks or read about on ads while riding the subway. It will be a real currency that Anderson Cooper is teaching about. And that is all it might take for the floodgates to open wide to crypto.
60 Minutes is on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
