Anderson Cooper was all ears last night for his interview with the dooood that dropped the equivalent of $800 million in bitcoin on two Papa John's pizzas back in 2010. The official transcript reads like this: Laszlo Hanyecz unknowingly spent 10,000 BTC. on the pizzas in what would appear to be a mindless transaction to the uninformed. Hanyecz spoke at length about his decision during last night's Bitcoin special on 60 Minutes.
Had he not held a little longer, and perhaps believed in his investment to some degree, those 10,000 BTC would have risen to $800 million in value in the not so distant future. In his defense, the lot he spent on the two pizzas was virtually worthless at the time, evidently so - about as much as two pizzas will run you in 2019, give or take a 5-note or two.
Unbeknownst to host Anderson Cooper, whose knowledge of cryptocurrency is admittedly sparse, the exchange rate in 2010 wasn't quite as forceful, or volatile as it is today. "That's $800 million. You spent about $800 million on pizza?" Cooper asked his guest, as a person would with his limited insight into the nuances of Bitcoin trading and mining. In response, Hanyecz, an early investor in the tech world, told his host that for the sake of his sanity, and general well-being, he tries not to dwell on the "what ifs" of his Papa John's purchase.
In an earlier print interview with the Coin Telegraph, Laszlo Hanyecz even admitted that he didn't regret his purchase, in light of the fact, the transaction was in itself a pioneering step in the right direction.
"I don’t regret it. I think that it’s great that I got to be part of the early history of Bitcoin in that way, and people know about the pizza and it’s an interesting story because everybody can kind of relate to that and be [like] – 'Oh my God, you spent all of that money," he said quite frankly. "I was also kind of giving people tech support on the forums and I ported Bitcoin to MacOS, and you know, some other things – fix bugs and whatnot, and I’ve always kind of just wanted people to use Bitcoin and buying the pizza was one way to do that."