VENEZUELAN DIGITAL CURRENCY, THE "PETRO", WILL BE GUARANTEED BY MORE THAN 5 BILLION OIL BARRELS
The Venezuelan government has issued a decree introducing the operational establishment of a national digital currency in the country, the Petro. It presents the conditions that will surround its emission, its mining and its exchanges. The Petro will be secured by more than 5 billion barrels of crude oil.
5 Billion barrels of oil:
Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has allocated 5.3 billion barrels of crude oil - worth about 267 billion dollars - to guarantee the price of this national digital currency.
However, this is only a small part of the reserves available to the country. Estimates made by the United States at the end of 2009 indicated that Venezuela would hold more than one-third of the world's oil reserves, with the equivalent of 514 billion barrels in its underground.
As we mentioned in this article, Mr. Maduro announced the creation of Petro in early December.
Through the editing of a weekly program broadcast on radio and television, he presented "a document formalizing the provision of the Ayacucho oil field, number 1 of the Orinoco belt, to guarantee the value of the cryptocurrency El Petro, "according to information relayed by Russia Today. After saying that "each Petro will be guaranteed by a barrel of oil," Maduro said:
"We will set up a dedicated team, made up of cryptocurrency specialists, who will be given the task of mining in all the states and municipalities of our country".
A "Cryptocurrency Superintendency" and a "National Blockchain Observatory" will oversee the creation and operation of the Petro.
A launch that would be associated with an ICO
The Venezuelan government has unveiled a decree of 13 articles, nearly half of which contain operational details related to the establishment of Petro.
Article 4 of the Decree sets out the assets that guarantee the value of the new currency, indicating that each Petro "will be linked [...] to a purchase agreement for a barrel of oil".
Article 5 reveals the nature of the portfolios that will host these Petros, as well as the convertibility of digital currency:
"A Petros holder may exchange the crypto-asset for its market value to another cryptocurrency or bolivars, based on the market exchange price published by the national trading house of crypto-assets [...] The holder of each Petro will own a digital wallet, which will be under his own responsibility. "
The government also provided details related to the Petro issue, suggesting that it could be associated with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
"The initial investment will be made through auctions or through a direct assignment, which will be conducted by the 'Superintendency of Crypto-Active and Related Venezuelan Activities'," reads article 8.
The authorities explain in article 9 that "the custody of the funds will be decentralized once the 'Superintendency of crypto-assets and related Venezuelan activities' will have put in place the initial auctions, and will have assigned crypto-assets to investors" .
In terms of timing, the Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez was recently quoted in a local newspaper stating that "the date of issue of the first Petro cryptocurrency will be announced in a few days". Mr. Maduro said this during his end-of-year speech, broadcast on Sunday:
"During the month of January, I will present the conditions related to the launch of Petro".
The arrival of Petro comes as the Venezuelan bolivar goes through a severe crisis - the rampant inflation in the country has plunged the minimum wage to less than $ 4 a month.
To get by, some citizens began to mine Bitcoin, taking advantage of the country's very cheap electricity. Some would be able to earn several hundred dollars a month through this activity.
Référence : news.bitcoin.com