The first purchase with Bitcoin might have been buying a JPEG and not a pizza as we have known for many years. The user Sabunir posted on BitcoinTalk on January 24, 2010, that he wanted to test Bitcoin and proposed the community sell them a picture for $1 in Bitcoin. This was before the popular Bitcoin pizza day that will be celebrated by the community on May 22nd.
First Bitcoin Transaction: A JPEG for 500 BTC?
The Bitcoin community found that the first transaction using Bitcoin was four months before the popular 10K pizza purchase by Laszlo Hanyecz. In a recent Twitter thread, Udi Wertheimer wrote that during a Space, they discovered that the first Bitcoin transaction might have been processed to buy a JPEG for 500 BTC. Another interesting thing about this discovery was related to Satoshi helping with this sale.
Sabunir wrote:
“Hello, all. I’ve decided to give Bitcoin a try. As a test, I want to see if I can make $1 USD from selling a picture. According to this, 500 Bitcoin should roughly be a dollar (after PayPal fees), right?”
Nevertheless, there is another thing to mention, the transaction might not have been processed. The funds might have been sent as a donation for a different interaction. Indeed, the JPEG sale might not even have been executed as such, keeping the famous Pizza Day as the first time in which a real-world transaction was executed using Bitcoin.
This Twitter Space was FIRE
We discovered that:
🔥 the first purchase EVER with bitcoin was buying a JPEG for 500 BTC in Feb 2010
🔥 it pre-dates the the famous 10,000 BTC pizza
🔥 satoshi himself helped facilitate the JPEG sale
🔥 laser-eye cult in absolute SHAMBLES pic.twitter.com/b6ESOkbf0i
— Udi | BIP-420 🐱 (@udiWertheimer) May 14, 2023
It is important, however, that there was an attempt to use Bitcoin to pay for a service. The user wrote on BitcoinTalk that he was selling his high-resolution creation (for a desktop background). The address used was 1BHtsCnpmTvpgJEP7eMKEVhpJFunxSM8vq.
Ancient BTC Wallet Sends BTC
An ancient Bitcoin wallet decided to send Bitcoin for the first time in 12 years. The owner of this wallet decided to move 139 BTC to a Swgwit address. Back at the time in which these BTC were purchased, they cost less than $2,500 and now they are worth close to $3.75 million.
Wallets that have over 5 years old are usually considered to be part of those holders that own “ancient Bitcoin.” These are wallets that have at least 5 years without sending the coins anywhere. Several wallets holding ancient Bitcoin have been used in recent months showing that there is a clear interest from users to take action on their coins.
Some of these wallets date back to the era of Satoshi Nakamoto when the creator of Bitcoin was still around. It might be possible to see new movements of addresses and BTC that belonged to old Bitcoin holders that want to sell their coins or basically keep holding them but using new wallet addresses.
