Doubts About Venezuelan Cryptocurrency Petro’s Existence Come Out In the Open

Earlier this year in February, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of its state-owned digital currency Petro. Since then, president Maduro has been making boisterous claims with respect to the success of Petro, but has failed to show any evidence supporting his claims.

In its latest special report, Reuters unearths some unpleasant details about the cryptocurrency which makes us to doubt about its actual existence. The Venezuelan government led by president Maduro has earlier claimed that its Atapirire town, located in the center of the country has got 5 billion barrels of petroleum. The government claimed that these reserves shall be used to back the state-owned cryptocurrency Petro.

However, the residents of the Atapirire town said that the government has not done any work so far to capitalize on those reserves. The government earlier claimed that fuss from global investors for the Petro would flow into this area thereby create jobs for the country’s oil export industry. However, this has all turned into hoax, and nothing as promised has occurred so far.

Further investigation by Reuters into this matter showed that in fact no one inside the country is accepting Petro as a means of payment. That means that there is no trade of the Petro so far as falsely claimed by its government.

Moreover, government officials of Venezuela are seen themselves making some contradictory statements. President Maduro earlier said that the sale of Petro through an ICO helped them to raise $5 billion and that the cryptocurrency is used to pay for the country’s imports. However, cabinet minister Hugbel Roa told Reuters that the technology behind Petro is still under development and that “nobody has been able to make use of the petro ... nor have any resources been received.”

Alejandro Machado, a Venezuelan computer scientist who has been closely following the Petro developments said: “There is no way to link prices or exchange rates to a token that doesn’t trade, precisely because there is no way to know what it actually sells for.”

Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan professor of Latin American energy policy at Rice University, said:“There is no investment plan for this area and no reason to think it would be developed before other fields with better conditions.”

In an desperate attempt to make Petro a tradable digital currency, president Maduro announced a massive devaluation by tying it up with the fiat bolivars. Each Petro is currently worth $60 which is equal to 360 million bolivars.