Imagine this scene: In 2010, a young programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz sits in front of his computer screen, sending a surprising message: "I am willing to pay 10,000 bitcoins for a pizza!". That moment is celebrated worldwide every year on May 22 as "Bitcoin Pizza Day".
A strange beginning to a story of challenge and boldness. But who would have known that simple pizza would today be worth a billion dollars?! That story was not just a historical joke, but a call to the wise and influencers: the future is built only through risk, and revolution always starts with a single step in the dark.
In October 2008, as the world sank into a suffocating financial crisis, a revolutionary paper emerged that would change the course of financial transactions once and for all... signed by "Satoshi Nakamoto" - a figure whose true identity remains unknown to this day.
The paper described a new financial system that operates without intermediaries or central banks, a system that returns financial power to individuals... away from the dominance of a few who control the world's economy from behind the walls.
Bitcoin currencies in their early days were merely a dream that danced in the minds of programmers, who saw in encryption a hope for a world free of intermediaries. They were like seeds planted in dry soil, waiting for the rain of acceptance and spread.
Peter Drucker says: "The best way to predict the future is to create it," and that's what the early pioneers did, who spent long hours mining the currency on their computers or exchanging it for strange things, as if it were a hidden game with time, but the risk was high... And as the poet said: Every adventurer wins pleasures, and those who hesitate sit with regrets.
What if buying your morning coffee with Ethereum became as commonplace as using dollars? Or even transferring money to your family in another country via Solana without fees? This may seem like a distant future, but it could be our reality in 2035... Imagine a world where borders between countries are indistinguishable, where a worker in the Gulf sends money to their family in India without fees or delays, and a freelancer receives their payment with utmost ease and simplicity. Thanks to digital currencies, this is not science fiction, but a possibility that today pulses with the lives of 1.4 billion people deprived of traditional banking.
It has now become known among people that Bitcoin is digital gold.
Due to its rarity? Perhaps...
Due to its quality? Maybe...
But what's certain is that due to the revolutionary idea that aimed to eliminate the dominance of money intermediaries over the global economy and manipulate it.
For Bitcoin to become a means of spending and not just a store of value, it must pass through three tough tests:
1. **Expansion**: Processing transactions quickly and at a low cost, like the Lightning Network which is considered a promising first step.
2. **Stability**: Reducing the enormous volatility that makes it resemble a speculative stock rather than money. As studies indicate, Bitcoin's volatility surpasses that of major currencies by tenfold!
3. **Acceptance**: For governments, banks, and merchants alike to believe that this system is not a threat but an opportunity... or be forced to adopt it under the pressure of its popularity among people.
And the economist Friedman himself says: "Money is a tool, and if it is not used in daily life, it turns into just a souvenir," and today Bitcoin stands at a crossroads: it could either become "digital gold" stored away, or "live money" that drives the economy.
So, on Bitcoin Pizza Day, don’t just laugh at the absurdity of the number, but tip your hat to the courage of Laszlo who said in 2020: *"I didn’t think Bitcoin would become anything, but I wanted it to work"*, and today, it indeed works.