What is Lightning Pizza Day?

On February 25, 2018, Laszlo Hanyecz used bitcoin’s second layer Lightning Network to buy pizza for the first time.

Laszlo Hanyecz. Courtesy: Linkedin.

You may be wondering why someone would celebrate something as normal as ordering pizza.

After all, many people had already purchased all kinds of items using the lightning network.

The reason this particular purchase is special is because this was not the first time Hanyecz has used bitcoin to buy pizza.

In fact, Hanyecz was the first person to ever buy any “real world” item with bitcoin at all…all the way back in 2010.

Here was his original offer:

And two Papa John’s pizzas were what he purchased.

If you are interested in hearing the rest of that story, you can read our post on this event, known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.

Why is Lightning Pizza Day Important?

“Lightning Pizza Day” is important for a few reasons:

1. It shows the different ways Bitcoin’s Lightning Network could be used. By making a small purchase using the second-layer payment protocol, it shows that the Lightning Network can be used to efficiently and cheaply make smaller purchases (like buying pizza).

2. It’s am homage to the original “Bitcoin Pizza Day” from 2010, which was the first known Bitcoin purchase, and shows how far technology has come in the eight years since then.

3. It shows how the price of a bitcoin has gone up from a theoretical currency worth nothing to a currency worth more than most fiat currencies, according to Deutsche Bank.

Additionally, it highlights the growing acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrency as a form of payment and the potential for it to be used in everyday transactions.

In general, the event is seen as a sign of how far cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have come and how far they can go.