Venezuela Publishes Official Petro Cryptocurrency Whitepaper Making it a National Currency

Venezuela Publishes Petro Whitepaper Making it a National Currency

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president has announced the launch of the Petro as a national currency. During a speech on Monday, he claimed that with the Petro, the country will be able to strengthen its financial sovereignty. The white paper also reveals that the currency is not only backed by oil but also by other natural resources present in the country.

The cryptocurrency has been created back in February with the intention for Venezuela to avoid financial restrictions and sanctions imposed by several countries. Venezuela tried to establish commercial relations with Poland and Argentina trying to pay with Petro but it none of these countries accepted.

During the televised address, Maduro said:

“Venezuela makes history! Today we take a step forward with the launch of Petro as a national currency and platform for strengthening our financial sovereignty.”

Additionally, Telesur TV informed that the cryptocurrency does not need to be mined since it already has value. Oil, diamond, gold, iron and aluminium will be backing this national cryptocurrency, according to the publication. The backing distribution will be 50% oil, 20% gold, 20% iron and 10% diamond.

The new whitepaper explains that the virtual currency will be using a hybrid system powered by Dash’s X11 mining algorithm for Proof of Work (PoW) and a staked masternode system that will allow for Proof of Stake verification.”

According to the Ethereum developer Joey Zhou, Venezuela’s Petro is a clone of Dash, a virtual currency that is used in Venezuela. Dash has been growing all over the world, but Venezuela is one of the most important countries where it operates. Indeed, Caracas, Venezuela’s capital is the city with the highest number of merchants accepting Dash.

Telesur TV has also quoted Maduro saying that the Petro is present in six ‘topmost’ international exchanges. However, it has not been listed by any ‘top 50’ exchange as of today.

The Petro will be used to pay for goods such as airline tickets, hotels and to make real estate purchases. The government expects to neutralize the black market and money mafias in the country. According to Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, money mafias slump in the value of the Venezuelan bolivar harming the nation’s economic woes.

AVN state news agency informed that each unit of virtual currency will be tied to 3,600 sovereign bolivars. On the matter, the company explained:

“Each unit of the cryptocurrency will be equivalent to 3,600 sovereign bolivars and will be the reference for fixing the value of work, the price of services, and of consumer goods – one of the accounting units that will govern the Bolivar nation.”

The Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Informative said that Venezuelan people will be able to purchase the Petro with sovereign bolivars.