Following the recent beginning of the private pre-sale of Petro, the Venezuelan government's cryptocurrency that would be backed by oil reserves, personalities from the political, economic, communicational and technological fields have issued conflicting opinions on the subject.
In the first instance, we can mention the words of Carlos Vargas, Superintendent of Venezuelan Cryptoactives and Related Activities, who indicated that the Petro cryptocurrency represented a refuge digital asset and that its launch would mark the beginning of a new financial era.
"This launch makes the country one of the most modern in this system, and it will continue to be developed and perfectable. But, especially, it is a system that seeks to relaunch a new economic model."
Carlos Vargas
Superintendent, Superintendency of the Venezuelan Cryptoactives
In contrast, an important figure of the blockchain ecosystem, Vitalik Buterin (the creator of Ethereum) uttered strong words towards Petro. When asked through Twitter about the Venezuelan cryptocurrency project, Buterin said that the community should focus on project reliability and that in his opinion this was an unreliable, centralized and risky project.
"This is why the crypto community needs to move away from "yay, blockchain" and focus specifically on which is the trusted model of each project. This is definitely quite centralized and depends in multiple ways on a central party (Venezuelan government) that does not seem to be very reliable.
In particular, I recall that the White Paper says that it does not offer oil, but offers bolivars based on the price of oil. In addition to the risk of total default, this gives them the opportunity to make a partial default by manipulating the official rate of bolivar, which they have a history of doing."
Vitalik Buterin
Founder, Ethereum
In statements to Globovisión, Ricardo Sánchez, vice-president of the Science and Technology Commission of the National Constituent Assembly, said: "Petro represents assets of refuge and investment assets" and added that Petro could solve certain problems that afflict Venezuelans, such as the extraction of cash and liquidity from the bolívar fuerte. But Jose Guerra, deputy of the National Assembly, indicated that according to article 12 of the National Constitution, guarantees on national reserves cannot be offered. Additionally, Guerra explained to the local media Unión Radio that to broadcast the token would require the approval of the National Assembly, which has not authorized it.
Antonio Ledezma, the former mayor of Caracas, who shared his opinion from exile through his official Twitter account, is another political figure who has spoken out on the launch of Petro. Ledezma raised an open question about whether money laundering would be carried out through Petro and urged the media to verify information related to the $735 million "suspicious capital".
Economists such as Luis Oliveros have also expressed their opinion regarding Petro. Oliveros said in an interview that the Venezuelan cryptoactive would be a fraud because its fundamentals are inconsistent and illegal. It seems to me that the petro will ultimately be a scam", he said.
"The government talks about the fact that it is going to start selling those petros in the international markets, markets that it has closed, and in the end, the conclusion is: gentlemen, petroleum is a very large smoke sale that the government is making. It is all illegal in itself because it is based on oil reserves that cannot be placed as a guarantee for this type of operation. Where are those 750 million dollars? That's one of the big questions we ask ourselves."
Luis Oliveros
Economist
It should be noted that the collection of more than $700 million has caused a stir. However, when this was announced by the Venezuelan government it was signaled as an intention to purchase on the part of investors. There is a purchase intention in the pre-sale of 4,777 million yuan, which means in euros 596 million euros, 735 million dollars", said Maduro. Furthermore, despite the fact that it is in private pre-sale, the Petro does not yet have an intelligent contract or official token, which indicates that the collection figures shared by the Venezuelan government refer to the intention of the investors to purchase, as President Nicolas Maduro expressed.
The economist Juan Carlos Valdez also explained that Petro could be a means to facilitate the importation of goods or services that could not be purchased using the Bolivar. He stressed that Petro would be the first cryptocurrency backed by real goods and that it would allow them to "circumvent the international system":
"Petro arises from the need to meet the need to import goods and services into the country and with the Bolivar we cannot do it, the advantage that Petro gives us is precisely what the Bolivar can not give us, which is to bypass the international financial system.
The difference between Bitcoin and Petro or the cryptocurrency, is that Bitcoin has no backup, it is very unstable, in less than a week it goes up a lot or falls in half, at some point it may reach zero and Petro is impossible, the oil will never reach zero and up to now it is backed by oil because it is what we have certified and if at some point we certify in gold, because it can also be backed up."
Juan Carlos Valdez
Economist
Meanwhile, Reuters and BCC correspondent journalist Girish Gupta, who has been following the Petro launch as part of his Venezuela Econ. project, publicly complained about the registration platform for the creation of Petro's portfolios. "The website has a terrible interface, it's not secure and it doesn't send the verification email", he wrote.
Hugbel Roa, Venezuela's Minister of Science and Technology, said in a press conference that "Petro seeks to strengthen our financial system. We have adapted ourselves to the international interconnection manuals to make Petro a healthy, clean and transparent currency", he said.
On February 20, Venezuela's vice-president Tareck El Aissami announced the official launch of Petro's private pre-sale. The uncertainty surrounding which network would be used for its launch reigned in that day, since from the beginning the Venezuelan authorities had announced that Petro would be an ERC-20 token in the Ethereum blockchain. It was then confirmed that it would be supported on the NEM platform.
According to the project's roadmap, in March the private sale will take place, between March and April the Initial Currency Offer (ICO) will take place and in April they plan to begin operations with Petro in the digital exchange houses. Undoubtedly, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency will continue to be talked about for a long time.
Source: www.criptonoticias.com
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Great collection of various opinions. I'm personally pretty hesitant about the Petro. Blockchain still hasn't quite figured out how to handle coins backed by real-world commodities while being completely decentralized.
Dude, I'm telling you on all grounds that this project is more likely to fail, i. e. scam, than thrive. I'm telling you because I'm Venezuelan and I know who the government is, it's a narco-government, a communism just like Cuba. They want to use petro as a way to evade U. S. sanctions and who knows what else. In short, in the eyes of many, this cryptocurrency will be used for illegal things. Petro is also backed by Venezuelan petroleum. Oil production this year is at the historic lows of Venezuela, imagine.
It's just a summary, buddy... This is my personal opinion being Venezuelan, living every day in this narco-government, watching how they steal the resources and money of the country, and let their people starve to death.
Greetings and a huge my friend @egmracer01
I hope the best for you. I don't think the project will succeed either. I think the point of decentralization is that you don't have to trust anyone but the Petro won't be decentralized. As you put it, it's a way to get around regulations.
What do you think is going to happen with the situation in Venezuela?
We both agree then, colleague.
Regarding the situation in Venezuela, it is already very critical... The tension within the country is very great. People are starving, there are no medicines, no social security... Living literally in Venezuela is hell.
Imagine.... The minimum wage of a Venezuelan is approximately $3, which has been passed on to bolivars is 750,000 Bsf (VEF).
There is likely to be military intervention in the country this year because of the situation. There are known to be marines on the border with Colombia and on the border with Brazil. Rumor has it there's an aircraft carrier in Trinidad and Tobago. So it's no wonder that in the next few days or weeks there will be an intervention.
I know the situation very well since I am Venezuelan and live in Nueva Esparta State.
Whatever happens, I wish you and your family safety and health through these tough times.
Thank you very much, my friend. Greetings and a hug :)