On December 3, 2017, President Nicolás Maduro announced the creation of a cryptocurrency backed by gold, gas, diamond and Venezuelan oil and named it "petro". The justification for creating it was "the financial blockade of some countries and international institutions against the country".
From that day to the present, different regulations and institutions were created to control the use of virtual currency, the first in the hands of a State and backed by oil reserves. The Superintendence of the Cryptocurrency thus emerged on December 8 and Carlos Vargas was appointed as the head of the government entity.
Vargas announced that same day the creation of the Unique Registry of Legal Mining that would work from December 22, 2017 and until January 21 of this year so that those people who had equipment to mine cryptocurrencies could legalize them and avoid being confiscated by authorities. .
During the creation of the digital asset, doubts arose about its operation as well as the fact that it was based on oil reserves. Article 3 of the Hydrocarbons Law establishes that "the existing hydrocarbon deposits in the national territory, whatever their nature (...) belong to the Republic and are assets of the public domain, therefore, inalienable and imprescriptible", is To say, oil reserves can not be used to sustain an asset such as petro.
The chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, José Guerra, explained in an interview that the government violates the Constitution and the laws by offering oil reserves as an asset support.
"I see it as a debt. The government is issuing a liability, "said the legislator.
Another disadvantage of the petro was if it could be mined like other cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin). The doubt cleared on January 8 when in an interview the superintendent Vargas indicated that it was not going to be minable, but that a quantity of "pre-rolled" currency would be sold through auctions that the government would announce.
The economist Henkel García explained to El Nacional Web that there are arguments to consider the petro as a cryptocurrency or a bond. "It's not a cryptocurrency that works like bitcoin, but it's a token that is issued under a platform, in this case an ethereum contract. Here the real issue is whether we can exchange petros for a barrel of oil. That will not be so easy to exchange, "he said.
Trust is fundamental
One of the elements that governs the operation and value of cryptocurrencies is the trust that users place in them. When this is very high, as happened with bitcoin, the price tends to shoot up quickly, but if it is low, its value can become zero.
García said that one of the elements that will govern the operation of the petro is the confidence that users deposit in it. "If there are not the necessary conditions, why would I want to acquire petros when I can do the same transaction with another cryptocurrency?" He said.
The US government made it clear to those US investors who decide to conduct operations with petros that "may contravene the sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro", that is, they could be sanctioned by the North American country.
On this subject, Garcia added that the number of operations carried out with petros will be limited precisely by the sanctions. "It will not be used by the main actors the government is looking for," he said.
Role of the "farms" of cryptocurrencies
Another of the announcements made by the Executive was the creation of "farms" for the operation of the petro, which would consist mainly of young people attached to the Chamba Youth Plan.
"I have decided through the Superintendence of Cryptocurrency to create projects for juvenile mining and the creation of juvenile mining farms of all the crythat exist and especially the petro," the president said at an event held in Caracas.
