Venezuela’s Petro Cryptocurrency Project Alive and Well
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Petro was announced in late 2017 and is backed by the country’s mineral and oil reserves. President Maduro has stated that the government is set to spend a lot of gold and oil for the cryptocurrency as well as steel, aluminum, and iron.
The controversial president has already introduced the cryptocurrency into the lives of Venezuela citizens bit by bit, claiming that over 6 million families have used it to purchase goods. Many are still skeptic on the idea, but Maduro’s latest comments show that the government is serious about Petro.
Not Giving Up on the Crypto Pet Project
President Maduro surprised everyone when he announced the cryptocurrency live on TV in December 2017. Fueled by the economic and political turmoil in the South American country, Petro is supposed to help Venezuela advance on the road to monetary sovereignty and open up new international financing channels. Backed by the country’s oil, gold, and diamond reserves, Petro should supplement the country’s failing fiat currency, the Venezuelan bolivar.
One hundred million Petro tokens were originally announced by Maduro which translates to issuance of over $6 billion. The whole project will be overseen by a government advisory group called VIBE which is the legal and political base of the cryptocurrency. Venezuela’s National Assembly has declared the Petro an illegal debt issuance, but that was to be expected since the Assembly is led by the largest opposition party.
Pre-sale of the crypto started in February 2018 and ended over a month later. According to the government, it raised over $3 billion. The Petro white paper says that the cryptocurrency is based on Ethereum’s platform although that changed quickly and the platform was to be NEM. NEM is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and blockchain platform written in Java that has its supporters and doubters.
After a round of changes made to the white paper, the latest revision revealed that Petro is essentially a fork of Dash. After the successful pre-sale, Maduro also announced a gold-backed cryptocurrency called Petro gold, although no one is sure if it is backed by the country’s gold reserves or untapped mineral wealth. One thing is for sure – Petro is not dead at all. As a matter of fact, it seems to be more alive than ever.
A Whole New World of Possibilities
With Maduro clearly set on launching Petro ASAP, it could shake things up in many industries including online gambling. The rising industry will surely benefit from the use of cryptocurrencies and Venezuela’s own crypto. Bitcoin gambling is already making waves around the world, and Venezuela’s Petro could soon make all the waves in South America.
It remains to be seen when Petro will be released into the wild and if it’ll have the impact the government hopes it will. If it hits the ground running, it could make the country an economic wonder.
