Petro Crypto: Venezuela’s Last Hope

By Rishma Banerjee

Venezuela, a country in South America, under the governance of President Nicolas Maduro has been the victim of grave economic troubles like hyperinflation and their currency in freefall. This has led to approximately 2.3 million people fleeing the country as economic refugees and a general sense of distrust in the government and the financial institutions. The country’s traditional fiat currency has also been devalued.

It is against this backdrop that President Maduro ordered all banks in the country to begin using and dealing with cryptocurrency as a legitimate mode of payment. Petro crypto which is backed by gold and oil is being anticipated to help the economy out of its present crisis and has become the country’s most promising hope.

Maduro despite garnering numerous criticisms has not exhibited any signs of stepping down from governance. Moreover, he has recently declared that from 5^th November, the public sales of Petro will be initiated. This announcement has encouraged several comparisons between Petro crypto and other known cryptocurrencies that are already being circulated. One of Etherium’s core developer, Joey Zhou has forwarded the most notable accusation. He said that Petro was an obvious imitation of Dash, a popular cryptocurrency, which is on the top 10 list. However, no official response has been issued by the Venezuelan Government in this regard.

Naturally, these accusations and various criticisms have hampered Petro’s acceptance level in the country, and despite placations which say that Petro is fully supported by oil and gold, apprehension continues to rise.

With an economy as weak as that of Venezuela, which now has a predicted inflation rate of 1,000,000% by the end of this year, Petro, for the Venezuelans might be the last resort and their last hope of pulling the country out of a fiscal crisis of such mammoth proportions. Needless to say,  all eyes are now set on the upcoming launch date.