The Petro, the new Cryptocurrency of Venezuela

Recently the president of Venezuela, Niclolás Maduro, announced the creation of a new cryptocurrency with the objective of "overcoming the financial blockade" of the country. Surely many of us have already heard about it: it is known as the Petro. Venezuela is placed at the forefront of future times.

The cryptocurrency Petro is the only one in the world that is supported by physics with 5.342 million barrels of field 1 of the Ayacucho Block of the Orinoco Oil Belt.

HOW TO ACQUIRE IT?

• Buy in the Initial Offer open to the participation of the general public.

• By means of exchange of Petro ERC20 tokens acquired in the Presale.

• In the secondary market once the Initial Offer process has ended.

Particularities of the Petro

It is not a virtual currency anymore. The petro has its peculiarities that distinguish it from other cryptonomedas: the most striking is that it will be the first cryptocurrency that is implemented by a government.

On the other hand, unlike the others, the petro will have a "physical backup", which are the reserves of the Orinoco oil, as the main base, as well as the gold and diamond reserves of the national mines, as well as gas.

Precedents

We said before that the petro would be the first virtual currency promoted by a government. But in fact Venezuela is not the first country that tries to implant a cryptocurrency: Russia, Dubai or Estonia had also announced that they would launch their own virtual currency. However, the motives that move them are very different: if in Venezuela the objective is to respond to a real problem and refloat the finances; in the others, on the other hand, it seems to be more a renewal to give the air of modernity, but without any asset as support.

The poor economic situation in Venezuela is not a new issue, and lately it has gotten worse. Nowadays, the country has a large external debt and has not been able to face all the payments that it should have made effective. And to make matters worse, his situation is further aggravated even after the US government has sanctioned him.

On the other hand, the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) foresees that Venezuela will end 2017 with an inflation of 652% and a decrease of 12% of gross domestic product.

Faced with this scenario so marked by the crisis, the experts have released very different opinions regarding the petro as a solution to these financial problems. The BBC asked for a couple of them.

On the one hand, experts such as Jesús Palau, professor at the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting at ESADE, believe that it is not a very viable solution. First, because currencies, whether physical or virtual, always depend on the quality of the country where they are in progress. And at this moment the country (referring to Venezuela) is not at its best. And second, because he believes that these sources of support, such as oil, are now in the hands of others.

On the other hand, experts like Garrick Hileman, economic historian of the CFAC (the Alternative Finance Center of Cambridge), do consider that petro can be viable. He explains that such a cryptocurrency would be reliable and that, if managed properly, it could serve to solve a country's problem. Of course, it stands out in this sense that the management of the government should be above all transparent.

In any case, it seems clear that the petro would be a way to win both national and international investors.