Venezuela has started the issue of its Petro coin
During the midnight in Venezuela (04:00 AM GMT), the issue of Petro tokens backed by oil assets has started, as reported by the country’s President Nicolas Maduro on his Twitter:
¡Pendientes! En pocos minutos haremos el lanzamiento al mundo de nuestra criptomoneda Venezolana El Petro que viene a fortalecer nuestra economía pic.twitter.com/uWqZApJdyl
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 20, 2018
“This will strengthen our economy”, assures Nicolas Maduro whose country’s shops are short on even basic goods, including laundry detergents and toilet paper.
As already told in the previous reports by Bitnewstoday, the country’s opposition calls this initiative rigged from the start and deems it illegal. This did not stop Maduro and his supporters.
Because this Petro coin is backed by oil, its price will be similar to the current price of oil: the authorities expect 60 dollars per Petro as initial price. The total coin supply will be 38.4 mln units.
Who exactly designed the blockchain structure of this token and is this person going to be awarded by Maduro in case of success currently remains unknown. Meanwhile, there are some grounds to think that introducing an alternative currency in the middle of the national currency hyperinflation might only accelerate it. This is the exact reason why the Russian government does not want to see Bitcoin (or dollar, or euro) as a payment method exactly as wide as ruble.