In an attempt to refurbish there ailing economy the Venezuelan government is chasing every possible avenue, including launching a national cryptocurrency, Petro. Now to promote and to invite citizens and investors towards Petro, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launches a new Petro savings plan.
Aimed at inviting and enabling country’s citizens to put their funds into the national cryptocurrency. The news was released a few days ago by a local news outlet Telesur.
The Petro Savings plan
Part of the ‘Comprehensive National Cyptoasset Plan’ the savings plan will avail 4 million Petros to citizens interested in purchasing the stable coin. These 4 million Petros are equal to 14,400 million sovereign bolivars, the fiat currency of the country or $240 million dollars.
The users invested in the savings plan can acquire cryptocurrency through ‘Plataforma Patria’ or ‘Motherland Platform.’ The plan is available for the 18 million Venezuelans, who have an identity card. Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s Minister of Industries and National Production, said about the investment plan:
“The savings method includes quarterly amortizations and a final payment that can be executed between 90, 180 or up to 270 days, a scheme that allows safeguarding the value of the investment.”
The national cryptocurrency finally became available for citizens and interested investors on November 5, after much delay and much controversy, it has been recognized as a legal tender. Petro can be purchased using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the minimum purchase is equal to 0.01 Petros, or 39 sovereign bolivars.
Petro
Petro was incepted to counteract the international sanctions applied by the U.S. The sanctions shredded the country’s economy, currently, it is facing a 15% recession and around 10,000,000% inflation, as per some reports. As per its recently released Whitepaper the national virtual currency is backed by the natural reserves of the country, gold, diamonds, and oil.
Since its inception, Petro hasn’t been received well, for one U.S. immediately objected strongly to it. Than a Reuters report claimed that it has no users, no investors and no oil to back it up. Upon the release of Whitepaper, some controversies settled down, only to make space for another one. Some experts claims that Petro has plagiarised the whitepaper of Dash. Interestingly, Dash’s ability to allow users to rapidly send and receive money have made it a strong cryptocurrency in the country. In fact, Venezuela is amongst the countries with the largest number of merchants accepting Dash in the world.
