After a week of timeout the news is back! Your summary of last days news in the enchanted world of Blockchains!
The government of Venezuela launches its own crypto-currency, Petro coin
After a lot of announcements, the government of Nicolás Maduro finally makes the official launch of its criptocoin (20/02/2018).
According to the Venezuelan government, this currency will be supported by the main (and probably the only) export product of the country: crude oil.
The president of Venezuela announced that $ 735 million was collected on the first day of pre-sale of the new currency.
A large part of the community linked to the blockchains and criptomcoins do not welcome this new currency, mainly because it was created by an extremely centralizing entity, which is the government of Nicolás Maduro.
My impression of Petro coin is that it looks like a big scale Scam, coming from a totalitarian government in a country that is economically broken.
It seems very opportunistic to me that a government that is in a situation of complicated popularity, in a country with a practically bankrupt economy creates something like that.
Also, it's worth taking a look in this post of a Venezuelan lawyer here at steemid
Sources:
Express, Coindesk, Sputnik
Finland will hold its first auction of Bitcoins
Who does not remember the Silk Road case? At the event, many Bitcoins were seized by governments around the world, and one of them was Finland, which was given possession of 2,000 BTCs (the equivalent at the time of writing this article to 20.68 million dollars).
I have not found any specific date for when the auction will take place, but if you live in Finland, this should be a good opportunity to get some cheap bitcoins. Keep an eye on it!
Sources:
CCN, [Coindesk](https://www.coindesk.com/ finland-releases-new-guidelines-for-storage-of-confiscated-bitcoins /), [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-20/2-000-confiscated- bitcoins-create-a-storage-puzzle-in-finland)
Ripple announces partnership with Banco Itaú Unibanco
Ripple announced partnerships with 5 companies, including Itaú Bank, the largest bank in Brazil and Latin America in market capitalization value.
This can be a great victory for Ripple, as it seems that it has begun to achieve its initial goal, which is to have its system adopted by the banks to make money transfers.
In addition to Itaú, the announcement also includes the partnership with IndusInd Bank (India), and payment transmitters InstaREM (Singapore), Beetech (Brazil) and ZipRemit (Canada).
Ripple's partnerships also demonstrate how the focus of the company responsible for its development is different from many other crypto currencies.
Sources:
Ripple, Equities, Criptomoedasfacil, Época Negócios
That's all, folks. Feel free to discuss the news in the comments!