Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has made a series of announcements concerning the Petro. Currently, the public sale for the controversial virtual currency is set for November 5th.
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro gave key updates about the nation’s Petro digital currency during a joint radio and television broadcast.
According to a notice published on Venezuela’s government website, people are now able to visit the official Petro website and download the official wallet on Google Play.
President Maduro spelled out a rough timeline for the Petro during his remarks. He said the virtual currency would be available on six international exchanges as of October 1st.
It is not yet clear what exchanges these are, especially since several have labeled the coin as a scam.
¡Bienvenido El Petro! Llegó para fortalecer el Programa de Recuperación Económica y a revolucionar la criptoeconomía mundial como nueva forma de intercambio comercial, financiero y monetario. pic.twitter.com/2uERu523Ku
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) October 2, 2018
President Maduro also noted that a meeting with miners and cryptocurrency experts would take place on October 29th, just a few days before the Petro has a public sale on November 5th.
Otherwise, Maduro said oil from Venezuela would be sold in Petro. According to him, 51 percent of the money supply for the Petro will be held by Venezuela’s Crypto Asset Treasury. The other 49 percent will be available for the public.
The Petro will reportedly run on its own government developed distributed ledger. A report from Epoch Times said:
50 percent of petro’s price will hinge on the oil price, 20 percent on the gold price, 20 percent on the iron price, and 10 percent on the diamond price.
A New Website And Wallet
The official government website notes how the Petro uses the X11 hash algorithm, deemed the “safest” one. It says the Petro is protected by a PoW and PoS algorithm hybrid.
According to the site, which also features an official whitepaper for the digital currency, the Venezuelan government will try and position the Petro as an ‘investment option, savings mechanism, and means of exchange.’
The whitepaper also gives a bit more insight into the Petro. It explains how the government will be releasing 100 million pre-mined tokens on November 5th, each at a $60 price point.
As of press time, the Google Play Petro wallet had a rating of 4.2 stars from 158 reviews. Some said it was “excellent” and “incredible,” while others said it needed to “be more polished,” and that it was not safe.
Widely Seen As A Scam
Some see the Petro as a tool to skirt sanctions. Very few actually think the coin is anything other than a scam.
Experts in and outside of the county have maintained there is really no evidence that the Petro, or even the plans surrounding it, have resulted in any sort of change.
A scathing August report from Wired magazine regarded the government’s move to peg the bolivar to the Petro, and then relaunch as “pure nonsense.”
What do you think about the latest announcements from President Maduro? Let us know in the comments!
Images and Media courtesy of Bitcoinist archives, Shutterstock, Twitter/@NicolasMaduro.
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