President of Venezuela, Maduro, Urges Citizens to Choose His “Petro” Coin Instead of Bitcoin

On Thursday, April 25, 2019, President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro allegedly took to Periscope, a medium devoted to live appearances, to express the need to increase confidence in the nation’s cryptocurrency, Petro.

As reported by Bitcoinist, Maduro noted two things, first, the entry of new money is needed, especially from foreigners, and second, citizens of Venezuela are urged to invest in Petro. He discussed that when both are satisfied, the Venezuelan economy can potentially be relieved.

Launched in February 2018, the Petro is cryptocurrency issued by the Venezuelan government. When it was first introduced, the currency was deemed to be backed up by the country’s oil supply and mineral reserves.

By August 2018, a new currency, “bolivar soberano” was introduced and has since replaced their former currency, “bolivar fuerte” due to inflation. The new currency supposedly works in unison with the Petro.

While the support of a whole country for crypto is applaudable, unfortunately, the legitimacy of Petro has been questioned. Bitcoinist reasoned that the “principal supporter” of the Petro has far more debt and the numbers are much bigger (in terms of debt) compared to the currency’s total market cap.

The US was supposedly one of the first countries to back away from Petro, going as far as advising citizens against the investment.

When considering citizens of Venezuela, it seems like the majority are in favor of Bitcoin than they are of Petro. A bar graph provided by Localbitcoins was used as evidence to depict the popularity of Bitcoin among the Venezuelan people.

Source: Localbitcoins

Source 1: Originally belonging to Localbitcoins, Obtained from Bitcoinist

As seen in the graph above, since the beginning of 2019, Venezuelans have been heavily investing in Bitcoin [BTC], with the volume slightly under Bs32,000M.

Will Maduro’s efforts result in success for Petro or will the national crypto come crumbling down? Share your thoughts below!