Venezuela has been going through its worst economic crisis for the past 3-4 years, and the situation doesn’t seem to improve at least for now. The Latin country’s native fiat currency Bolivar has severely devalued over the last few years, causing great difficulty for the general public even to meet ends.
Interestingly, crypto mining became a popular job, as the crypto companies paid the miners in USD, which was turned out to be huge when converted to Bolivar. This made the government explore cryptocurrencies as a potential option to tackle hyperinflation and chronic recession.
Therefore, the government of Venezuela introduced a Petro, a stablecoin backed by the federal government’s natural reserves. Citizens can buy these tokens via the PetroApp, a platform to buy and sell Petro. Initial, the sovereign Bolivar was used to make the purchase; however the application now seems to accept Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash as valid payments.
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The announcement came via a tweet by Dash platform’s in-house news portal Dash News, which stated that PetroApp had enabled purchases with cryptocurrencies.
New Venezuelan PetroApp Reportedly Enables Purchases with Cryptocurrency#Cryptocurrency #Crypto #FinTech #Blockchain #Dash #Litecoin #Bitcoin #Venezuela https://t.co/wxWWbsJFye
— ₿rian (@Mastermined710) May 14, 2019
Though it might sound encouraging for the crypto community in the South American country, the reality could be a bit different. Petro has been criticized for just being a tool of money laundering and distraction for the infamous government. In a report shared along with the tweet, states that the country’s National Assembly had termed Petro as a “fraudulent, illegal and invalid mechanism for the government to continue its shady business and money laundering.”
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Nonetheless, cryptocurrencies continue to be a popular choice for the recession hit nations, because of their very cores like decentralization, immutability, and transparency. If not Petro, Venezuelans can still buy Dash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other currency to safeguard their wealth against economic deterioration.
