Starting this week, we’re launching “Crypto Found Me” — a raw, story-by-story chronicle of lives transformed by tokens they barely understood at the time.
From forgotten pizza shop wallets to $SOL payments that turned into validator nodes... every part will spotlight one true story, in chronological token order, no fluff, no fiction.
This is blockchain history told through human moments. One episode at a time. One cashtag at a time.
🍕 How a Pizza Delivery Kicked Off the Crypto Economy
📜 Prelude: A Network With No Price Tag
In early 2010, Bitcoin was still an experiment—created just a year earlier by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. It had no practical use outside the forums. Miners collected it for fun. Early adopters swapped it like trading cards. The market value? Undefined.
That is, until one hungry Floridian made a strange request.
📣 The Post That Changed Everything
On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a software developer and miner in Florida, posted this offer on Bitcointalk.org:
“I’ll pay 10,000 BTC for a couple of pizzas… maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day.”
He wasn't joking. He listed preferred toppings—onions, peppers, sausage—and said the pizza could be homemade, store-bought, or from anywhere, as long as it arrived hot to his home in Jacksonville.
At that point, 10,000 BTC was worth about $41, according to some niche exchange metrics. But no one had actually exchanged it for real food.
🚀 Enter: A 19-Year-Old Risk Taker
Four days passed. Then on May 22, 2010, Jeremy Sturdivant—aka “Jercos,” a 19-year-old from California—took the leap. He read Laszlo’s post, picked up the phone, and placed an order with a local Papa John's near Laszlo’s address. Two large pizzas with all the right toppings. Jeremy paid with his debit card and had them delivered.
Laszlo, true to his word, sent Jeremy 10,000 BTC.
At the time, neither of them thought they were making history. Just two guys on opposite coasts, sharing a digital handshake over a pizza run.
📷 Proof of Pizza
Laszlo posted a photo to Bitcointalk of his two kids smiling beside the now-iconic delivery boxes. It was the first time Bitcoin had bought something physical.
Suddenly, Bitcoin had real-world utility. This was the moment it crossed from niche code to economic reality.
💸 What Happened to the BTC?
Jeremy didn’t hold the 10,000 BTC. He spent it over the next few months on travel and living expenses. He told The Telegraph years later:
“The Bitcoin was worth a decent amount at the time—I wasn’t going to just sit on it.”
In hindsight? That pizza would one day cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But Jeremy has no regrets.
“You can’t go back and change the past. I’m proud to have participated in something that became historic.”
🕯️ Legacy: Bitcoin Pizza Day
Today, May 22 is celebrated worldwide as Bitcoin Pizza Day—a tongue-in-cheek but deeply symbolic reminder of how far crypto has come.
In 2010, it was 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC.In 2025, it’s an annual celebration of crypto’s roots.That transaction established Bitcoin’s first real price: $0.0041 per BTC.
And Jeremy? He became part of blockchain folklore. Not for what he kept—but for what he started.
🔁 Reflection
Bitcoin didn't begin with a whitepaper.
It began with a craving. A transaction.
Two people, two pizzas, and a question that echoed through time:
“Can we really use this?”
Turns out, we could.
The blockchain never forgets. Neither does history.
$THETA: The Token That Decentralized Video Streaming | Part 29
“Streaming was centralized. Theta made it peer-powered.”
1️⃣ The Origins – The Bandwidth Bottleneck
By 2017, video streaming ruled the internet — but it was expensive, centralized, and inefficient.
✔️ Platforms like YouTube and Twitch controlled distribution.
✔️ Viewers paid with attention, creators earned pennies.
✔️ Content delivery networks (CDNs) were costly and fragile.
On March 15, 2019, Theta Network ($THETA ) launched its mainnet — a decentralized video delivery protocol that let users share bandwidth and earn rewards.
✔️ Founded by Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long.
✔️ Built on a native blockchain with smart contract support.
✔️ Designed for streamers, viewers, and edge node operators.
It wasn’t just a network.
It was a CDN replacement powered by people.
2️⃣ The Surge – The Token That Incentivized Streaming
$THETA wasn’t just a governance token.
It was a reward for bandwidth and attention.
✔️ Viewers earned TFUEL by relaying video data.
✔️ Streamers and platforms integrated Theta to cut costs.
✔️ Validators staked THETA to secure the network.
It wasn’t just a token.
It was a new model for video economics.
3️⃣ The Adoption – Building the Peer-to-Peer CDN
Theta wasn’t just a whitepaper.
It was live and streaming.
✔️ Partnered with Samsung, Sony, and Google Cloud.
✔️ Integrated with Theta.tv, Samsung VR, and NFT platforms.
✔️ Powered decentralized video, edge computing, and digital rights.
Theta isn’t just a ticker.
It was the backbone of Web3 media.
4️⃣ The Vision – A World Where Streaming Is Shared
Theta wasn’t just about video.
It was about infrastructure, ownership, and scale.
✔️ Decentralized edge nodes across the globe.
✔️ Tokenized attention and compute.
✔️ A new model for media — open, fair, and efficient.
It was the protocol that turned viewers into validators.
$AGIX: The Token That Put AI on the Blockchain | Part 28
“AI was powerful. SingularityNET made it decentralized.”
1️⃣ The Origins – The Centralized AI Dilemma
By 2017, AI was exploding — but it was locked inside corporate silos.
✔️ Big Tech controlled the best models and data.
✔️ Developers couldn’t access or monetize their AI.
✔️ There was no open protocol for AI collaboration.
On December 21, 2017, SingularityNET ($AGIX) was born — a decentralized marketplace for AI services, where anyone could publish, discover, and combine AI models on-chain.
✔️ Founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel, a pioneer in artificial general intelligence (AGI).
✔️ Built on Ethereum, later expanded to Cardano and HyperCycle.
✔️ Designed for AI devs, researchers, and autonomous agents.
It wasn’t just a protocol.
It was a vision for decentralized superintelligence.
2️⃣ The Surge – The Token That Powered the AI Economy
$AGIX wasn’t just a utility token.
It was the fuel for an open AI network.
✔️ Used to pay for AI services and model execution.
✔️ Enabled staking, governance, and reputation scoring.
✔️ Became the native currency of decentralized cognition.
It wasn’t just a token.
It was a brain-to-blockchain bridge.
3️⃣ The Adoption – Building the AI Mesh
SingularityNET wasn’t just a whitepaper.
It was live and evolving.
✔️ Hosted hundreds of AI services — from NLP to computer vision.
✔️ Partnered with Cardano, Hanson Robotics, and Ocean Protocol.
✔️ Powered AI agents, DeSci tools, and autonomous dApps.
$$AGIX asn’t just a ticker.
It was the backbone of decentralized intelligence.
4️⃣ The Vision – A World Where AI Is a Public Good
SingularityNET wasn’t just about access.
It was about freedom, collaboration, and emergence.
✔️ Open-source AGI research.
✔️ AI agents that self-organize and evolve.
✔️ A new model for intelligence — owned by no one, used by all.
It was the protocol that made AI borderless, composable, and sovereign.
By 2017, data had become the most valuable asset on Earth — but it was hoarded by tech giants.
✔️ Users generated data but had no control over it.
✔️ AI models were trained on closed datasets.
✔️ There was no open marketplace for data exchange.
On November 6, 2017, Ocean Protocol ($OCEAN) was born — a decentralized data exchange protocol that let anyone publish, discover, and monetize data while preserving privacy.
✔️ Founded by Trent McConaghy and Bruce Pon.
✔️ Built on Ethereum, later expanded to Polygon, BNB Chain, and more.
✔️ Designed for AI developers, researchers, and data owners.
It wasn’t just a protocol.
It was a movement for data sovereignty.
2️⃣ The Surge – The Token That Made Data a Currency
$OCEAN wasn’t just a governance token.
It was a medium of exchange for data liquidity.
✔️ Used to incentivize data providers and curators.
✔️ Powered data staking, pricing, and access control.
✔️ Enabled AI models to train on decentralized datasets.
It wasn’t just a token.
It was the fuel of the open data economy.
3️⃣ The Adoption – Building the Data Commons
Ocean wasn’t just theory.
It was live and flowing.
✔️ Used by AI labs, DeFi protocols, and DeSci researchers.
✔️ Integrated with Compute-to-Data, enabling privacy-preserving AI training.
✔️ Partnered with Mercedes-Benz, Gaia-X, and Ocean Missions.
$O$OCEAN sn’t just a ticker.
It was a passport to data freedom.
4️⃣ The Vision – A World Where Data Is a Public Good
Ocean wasn’t just about monetization.
It was about reclaiming control.
✔️ Data wallets for individuals and DAOs.
✔️ Programmable data markets for any domain.
✔️ A new model for AI, built on transparency and consent.
It was the protocol that made data legible, liquid, and liberating.
$AKT: The Token That Turned Cloud Into a Commons | Part 25
“Big Tech owned the cloud. Akash gave it back to the builders.”
1️⃣ The Origins – The Cloud Monopoly Problem
The internet was decentralized.
But the cloud? Completely captured.
✔️ AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure ran the show.
✔️ Web3 apps were hosted on Web2 servers.
✔️ One kill switch could take down an entire ecosystem.
The irony?
Decentralized protocols were running on centralized infrastructure.
That’s when a group of Cosmos-native rebels launched Akash Network ($AKT) — a decentralized cloud marketplace where compute was sovereign, access was permissionless, and infrastructure was unstoppable.
✔️ Built on Cosmos SDK with IBC support.
✔️ Enabled anyone to rent or deploy compute containers.
✔️ Designed for AI, DePIN, DeFi, and censorship-resistant infra.
It wasn’t just a protocol.
It was a rebellion against cloud monopolies.
2️⃣ The Surge – The Token That Powered Sovereign Compute
$AKT wasn’t just a governance token.
It was the fuel for a decentralized cloud economy.
✔️ Compute providers earned AKT by renting out unused GPU/CPU.
✔️ Developers paid in AKT to deploy workloads permissionlessly.
✔️ Became the backbone of decentralized AI, DePIN, and validator infra.
It wasn’t just a token.
It was a compute-native currency.
3️⃣ The Adoption – Building the Cloud Commons
Akash wasn’t just a whitepaper.
It was live, scaling, and serving real workloads.
✔️ Used by AI labs, DePIN protocols, and Web3 infra teams.
✔️ Integrated with Filecoin, Render Network, and Cosmos chains.
✔️ Powered LLMs, inference jobs, and validator nodes.
$AKT wasn’t just a ticker.
It was the fuel of sovereign infrastructure.
4️⃣ The Vision – A World Where Compute Is a Public Good
$FCTR: The Protocol That Modularized DeFi Coordination | Part 22
“Infrastructure wasn’t enough. Factor made it composable, governable, and community-owned.”
1️⃣ The Origins – The DeFi Fragmentation Problem
DeFi was powerful.
But it was scattered.
✔️ Protocols were siloed.
✔️ Launching new products meant reinventing the wheel.
✔️ Governance was clunky, and coordination was hard.
Enter Factor DAO ($FCTR) — a modular DeFi infrastructure layer that let anyone build, launch, and govern financial primitives with plug-and-play precision.
✔️ Built on Arbitrum.
✔️ Enabled vault creation, strategy deployment, and DAO-native coordination.
✔️ Designed for builders, strategists, and communities.
It wasn’t just a protocol.
It was a DeFi operating system.
2️⃣ The Surge – The Token That Powered Modular Governance
$FCTR launched with a vision:
Make DeFi composable, governable, and community-first.
✔️ Used to govern vaults, strategies, and protocol upgrades.
✔️ Incentivized builders, strategists, and liquidity providers.
✔️ Became the coordination layer for modular DeFi.
It wasn’t just a token.
It was a governance primitive.
3️⃣ The Adoption – Building the Modular DeFi Stack
Factor wasn’t just a toolkit.
It was a launchpad for DeFi-native innovation.
✔️ Used by DAOs, asset managers, and DeFi protocols.
✔️ Enabled automated vaults, yield strategies, and permissionless deployments.
✔️ Integrated with Arbitrum ecosystem, GMX, and more.
FCTR wasn’t just a ticker.
It was the backbone of modular DeFi.
4️⃣ The Vision – A World Where DeFi Is Composable by Default
Factor wasn’t just about vaults.
It was about rebuilding DeFi as a modular, community-owned stack.
✔️ Composable infrastructure for financial primitives.
✔️ DAO-native governance for every layer.
✔️ A new model for scalable, decentralized coordination.
It was the protocol that made DeFi plug-and-play.
🧨 Final Word: The Protocol That Modularized DeFi
Factor didn’t just launch a token.
It launched a new DeFi design space — where builders, strategists, and communities could coordinate at scale.
And the world was watching.
“Coordination is the unlock. Factor makes it modular.” – Factor DAO