Venezuela will issue the first 100M Petros, the national cryptocurrency tied to the value of a barrel of oil.
Venezuelan President Maduro has ordered the issuance of the first 100 mln Petros, an oil-backed national cryptocurrency. He also indicated that each Petro would have the value of a single barrel of oil. He said:
“I’ve ordered the issue of 100 million Petros, based on national wealth. Each Petro will have the value of a barrel of Venezuela’s oil.”
The first national meeting of Petro miners will occur on January 14, along with the publication of the whitepaper. The announcement is in line with the previous statements from Maduro that the country would issue an oil-backed cryptocurrency.
The country’s massive hyperinflation problems have led to widespread lack of trust in the national currency, the Bolivar. This has caused much of the population with access to appropriate technology to pursue Bitcoin as a means of stable transactions – called ‘Bitcoinization’ by some economists.
Other countries including Zimbabwe have also seen widespread Bitcoin adoption in the face of financial instability.
