Venezuela keeps struggling with economic crisis and extreme inflation. The country’s public currency bolivar sinks down breaking late anti-records, whereas its socialist government puts all hopes into developing national cyber currency call “el-petro.” On January 30, Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro declared the date for the oil-supported state crypto ‘pre-sale,’ as well as signed its formal whitepaper and uncovered the Petro Container for mining the novel coin.
1. When Will Petro Be Available For Pre-Sale?
According to Reuters, president Maduro noted that the nation would commence the pre-sale of the state cyber coin on February 20. The announcement was made at the appointment with the Venezuelan statesmen.
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Informing about the pre-sale, Maduro claimed that Venezuela had approached the 'tomorrow.' He also added that the country’s economy progresses.
“Venezuela is at the forefront of the world, and we are going to accelerate permanently the start-up of the cryptocurrency, the petro,” said Maduro.
As the president stated, the pre-sale will happen via ERC20 tokens.
Previously, Venezuelan Superintendent of cryptos Carlos Vargas said that petro would be widely available in a few weeks.
2. Was The Rumored Whitepaper Appropriate?
During the same meeting, the country’s socialist leader showed the authoritative guide concerning petro – the whitepaper. A few weeks before that, some media informed about an allegedly leaked whitepaper on the currency. Later Maduro labeled the spread information as the false, without specifying what exactly was misleading in that info though.
In the new formal whitepaper, the conception of the authorities concerning petro, its uses as well as requirements of the launch were displayed, according to president’s words. Maduro signed the document on January 30.
After that, on social networks, lots of country’s citizens started demanding access to the paper. Notwithstanding the above, it has not been published for broad access.
3. What Is Petro Container?
As news.Bitcoin.com reports, on the same day, Maduro stated his aim to speed up emission of petro as well as the functioning of mining farms. Without specifying what exactly Petro Container is, the president added that these processes would be able to conduct with the help of this Container.
At the same time, according to his words, any savings bank in Venezuela will be able to take part in petro mining.
4. What Is So Special About Venezuela’s National Crypto?
The first announcement concerning petro was made back in December 2017. Maduro said that there would be emitted 100 million petros, supported by 5 billion barrels of oil, worth around $6 billion on the whole. On top of that, petro is supposed to be upheld by diamond and precious metals reserves.
Later, Maduro urged ten Central and South American countries to support the petro emission and promised to provide them with up to 60% discounts for the first investments.
Vargas, the crypto-boss of Venezuela, in his turn, has been promising that people all over the globe will be able to pile into petro from any exchange.
5. What Is So Suspicious About Petro?
Interestingly, Maduro's political opponents in the country have been pretty skeptic about the issuance of the state cyber coin, saying it cannot boost the economy. Specifically, the country’s Congress, dominated by the opposition, named such emission illegal and considered Maduro’s actions as an attempt to mortgage Venezuela’s oil reserves.
“This is not a cryptocurrency, this is a forward sale of Venezuelan oil. It is tailor-made for corruption,” the Venezuelan legislator Jorge Millan even said.
Moreover, the US cautioned potential investors, saying that petro could disrupt restrictions set against OPEC nation’s government. Crypto specialists, in their turn, said that investors would roughly be interested in piling into petros because of Venezuela’s economic crisis, fueled by maladministration and socialists’ lack of respect for private property rights.
