Two days ago Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced formally the launch of the national oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency, after he hinted at such a move as early as December least year.
Following this announcement, a campaign for hiring miners was started, announces the newspaper El Impulso. In case this is not clear, we're talking about digital miners: people who would use computers to mine this currency.
I don't know exactly how the token will work, and probably nobody does, at the moment, but the mere existence of a Unique Registry of Digital Mining (URDM), which is the only institution overseeing the mining of the crypto, paints a very Orwellian picture. A new generation of state employed miners which will supervise a "decentralized" token, by getting wages, instead of rewards. Strange as fuck.
Anyway, Maduro hopes that Petro will take off to such an extent that it could be used in international payments. It's not clear yet if only Venezuelan miners will be able to mint this token, or if the software will be available to everybody.
Whatever the software and the minting algorithm, if this thing works even 10%, it will mark an impressive milestone in the history of cryptocurrencies. And in the history of the mankind entirely.
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