President Launches Youth Crypto-Bank in Venezuela

By Dmitriy

Venezuela has always made news in the cryptocurrency world. In December 2017 the country’s president had announced the introduction of petro cryptocurrency, the value which would be based on the country’s oil, natural gas, and mineral reserves. Last Thursday, the president, Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of a bank for the country’s youth which will be funded by the same petro cryptocurrency.

The bank is being made mainly for young students and is supposed to start with 20 million petros initially as investment. This announcement was made in a youth ceremony speech that Nicolas Maduro delivered, in the state of Aragua, on Thursday. Maduro said that approximately $1.2 billion-worth of cryptocurrency would be given to this institution to set it up and get it running. He also said that the bank aims to support and encourage “productive initiatives” which means more cryptocurrency to get involved in the country’s economy.

Considering the Government’s focus on cryptocurrency, it’s only natural that Maduro encouraged every university to have a mining farm to produce cryptocurrencies in order to benefit and strengthen the economy of Venezuela.

The petro cryptocurrency has been under a lot of fire for its controversial nature. It is apparently a way to avoid the US led sanctions which have been imposed on Venezuela. The country’s own opposition-led Congress has expressed their reservations against this currency and the use of it. They have even termed it “illegal” since it borrows from the country’s assets, mostly oil. Meanwhile Manduro’s this announcement might strike the wrong chord with his adversaries.

Maduro is not one to shy away from his criticism though. In fact he is further emboldened in the face of them. He has even announced a second cryptocurrency which will be backed by the country’s gold reserves.