No one is using or selling the alleged cryptocurrency backed by Venezuela's oil

[ad_2][ad_1]

The cryptocurrency supported by oil in Venezuela is not used and the government has done nothing to draw on oil reserves as promised, a report of Reuters found last week.

Petro can not be found on any major bitcoin exchange, including Coinbase or Bitfinex, and is not accepted by resellers. Reuters found few buyers through online forums. Petro transactions are kept anonymous, but their frequency and volume seem low when compared to government claims.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that at the end of his initial offer of coins on March 20, sales of petro raked into $ 5 billion and funds are paying for imported goods. But a government minister involved in the project said to Reuters that currency technology was still under development, and no one was able to use the petro. The government agency in charge of petro, the Superintendency of Cryptoassets, does not have a physical office, and its website is also declining.

The petro launched in February, and was announced as the world's first sovereign cryptocurrency. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain and aims to save the country from wild inflation and foreign sanctions. After the petro launched and collected funds through an initial offer of coins, the bolívar value continued to fall at fivefold rates. Currently, a bolívar is worth 0.000004 USD (down compared to 0.00004 USD). Each petro was presumably supported by a barrel of oil, which is worth about $ 70.

Immediately after the launch of the petro, he faced criticism from experts and was regarded with suspicion by US Treasury officials and the opposition party. of Venezuela . One of the main concerns was whether oil reserves were really supporting oil, as claimed by the Venezuelan government, and how it would function logistically.

Tokens back-ups are becoming more popular and are seen as a more stable investment than most speculative cryptocurrencies, it is generally possible get the hard asset. In the case of petro, however, oil reserves remain intact and underground within a small city in Venezuela. The government claims that there are 5.3 billion oil reserves in Atapirire, but even so, there are no tools and infrastructure nearby to extract these resources.

On March 19, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order that banished Americans and anyone within the United States. the territory from the purchase of petro, saying that they are "the actions taken by the Maduro regime to try to circumvent the US sanctions".

Time reported on March 20 that Petro was a joint venture between Venezuela and Russia, whose senior advisors recommended the project as a way to avoid US sanctions, adding another wrinkle to a cryptocurrency already suspected.

[ad_2]Source link