Hugo Chavez, its stalwart leader passed away after a long battle with cancer in March, 2013. Maduro who succeed him, inherited one of the most shaky economies in the whole South American region. Maduro visioned cryptocurrency(Petro) backed by oil, late in December, 2017. But it failed to control hyperinflation and high unemployment rate pushing the country into crisis.
The government of Venezuela have recently stepped-up its strategy in increasing the cryptocurrency adoption in the country by offering discounts for property bought with Petro. The local press has reported that the minister for Habitat and Housing, Ildemaro Villarroel announced that 10% discount offered to purchasers that a paying for property in national crypto, Petro.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Housing has shared their plan to use the country’s national cryptocurrency, Petro to finance a large housing program. The minister having urged the construction companies to accept the oil-backed national cryptocurrency to be accepted as payment which claims to be able to consolidate the economic independence of the South American country.
Nicolas Maduro,Venezuelan President made public that country would create a basket for oil-backed state cryptocurrency, Petro. The sale of oil using Petro would commence in 2019. The main aim of this move was to expand the economy and reduce the dependance on the U.S. dollar for its oil trade, also to escape its trade sanctions.
The Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum announced that the Petro cryptocurrency would be presented at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2019 recognizing it as the ‘main digital currency backed by oil.’ The official stated, “We will present it to OPEC, it is one of the internationalization measures of the currency.”
The local financial institutions have recently begun to adopt the Venezuelan petro tokens by showing client’s account balance in national cryptocurrency. A leading blockchain start-up Dash has also launched its services enabling users to perform their cryptocurrency transactions with simple text messages and at the same time promote the awareness of cryptocurrency.
The Venezuelan Economy Department declared that their national cryptocurrency called Petro is available for purchase against cryptocurrency and fiat currency. The tweet by the department claimed that Petro could be purchased from the country’s treasury or from six authorized crypto exchanges. Petro could also be bought with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dash.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro has recently made an announcement regarding the official launch of the state-issued cryptocurrency, Petro. The public sales of the cryptocurrency will be held on November 5th, 2018 as its pre-sale has been ongoing in the last eight months ago. It is declared that the consideration for travel passports can be made in Petro.
The U.S. senators eye on tightening sanctions in connection with the Petro, Venezuela’s national cryptocurrency. The bill called the Venezuela Humanitarian Relief, Reconstruction and Rule of Law Act of 2018 has been put forward. When the bill becomes effective, it would feature two components. One among them would be the use of crypto to evade U.S. sanctions.
The new whitepaper released along with the affirmation made by the president regarding the launch of Petro as national currency revealed that the crypto is also backed by various other resources. The whitepaper revealed that the Petro uses Dash’s X11 mining algorithm for Proof of Work. The crypto is backed by 50% oil, 20% gold, 20% iron and 10% diamond.
