The Year Bitcoin Hit a Dollar and Investors bought Pizza

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Jul 17, 2026 · 9m

Bitcoin crossed a dollar in 2011 and almost nobody blinked. Ed Conroy revisits the year that felt completely ordinary at the time and turns out to have been quietly loaded with the moments that changed everything after it.

Conroy traces why 2012, not 2011, is the year most people point to as the smartphone tipping point, and why Steve Jobs died just before his own invention rewired how people talk to each other. He also recounts buying a jailbroken iPhone from a stranger in Florida before they were sold in Canada, then sitting at his kitchen counter with no idea how to turn it on.

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