Thread: Enter the 'petro': Venezuela to launch oil-backed cryptocurrency

Enter the 'petro': Venezuela to launch oil-backed cryptocurrency

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked to the world of digital currency to circumvent U.S.-led financial sanctions, announcing on Sunday the launch of the “petro” backed by oil reserves to shore up a collapsed economy.


The leftist leader offered few specifics about the currency launch or how the struggling OPEC member would pull off such a feat, but he declared to cheers that “the 21st century has arrived!”


“Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency,” backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing.



The petro, he said, would help Venezuela “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.”


Opposition leaders derided the announcement, which they said needed congressional approval, and some cast doubt on whether the digital currency would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. The real currency, the bolivar, is in freefall, and the country is sorely lacking in basic needs like food and medicine.


Still, the announcement highlights how sanctions enacted this year by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are hurting Venezuela’s ability to move money through international banks.



Washington has levied sanctions against Venezuelan officials, PDVSA executives and the country’s debt issuance.
Sources say compliance departments are scrutinizing transactions linked to Venezuela, which has slowed some bond payments and complicated certain oil exports.


Maduro's pivot away from the U.S. dollar comes after the recent spectacular rise of bitcoin BTC=BTSP, which has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world.


The announcement bewildered some followers of cryptocurrencies, which typically are not backed by any government or central banks. Ironically, Venezuela’s currency controls in recent years have spurred a bitcoin fad among tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass controls to obtain dollars or make internet purchases.



‘NO CREDIBILITY,’ OPPOSITION SAYS


Maduro’s government has a poor track record in monetary policy.


Currency controls and excessive money printing have led to a 57 percent depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar in the last month alone on the widely used black market. That has dragged down the monthly minimum wage to a mere $4.30.


For the millions of Venezuelans plunged into poverty and struggling to eat three meals a day, Maduro’s announcement is unlikely to bring any immediate relief.


Economists and opposition leaders say Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, has recklessly refused to overhaul Venezuela’s controls and stem the economic meltdown.



He could now be seeking to pay bondholders and foreign creditors in the currency amid a plan to restructure the country’s major debt burden, opposition leaders said, but the plan is likely to flop.


“It’s Maduro being a clown. This has no credibility,” opposition lawmaker and economist Angel Alvarado told Reuters.


“I see no future in this,” added fellow opposition legislator Jose Guerra.


Maduro says he is trying to combat a Washington-backed conspiracy to sabotage his government and end socialism in Latin America. On Sunday he said Venezuela was facing a financial “world war.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-v...-idUSKBN1DX0SQ

Hmmmm. A crypto actually backed by real wealth.
This is one I might actually invest in and get in on the ground floor.

If all is as it has been simplistically put.

Saddam wanted to be paid in Euros for his oil, Gaddafi planned a new gold dinar.

How did that work out for them?

Maduro's death warrant??

Originally Posted by SKkin

Saddam wanted to be paid in Euros for his oil, Gaddafi planned a new gold dinar.

How did that work out for them?

Maduro's death warrant??

And the Iranian borse...all stymied by US interests.
However, a crypto actually backed by real resources is something else.

Originally Posted by misskit

Washington has levied sanctions

One has to wonder why they insist on doing this kind of thing.

Desperate act of a failed country

Harsh analysis of the US, but not without foundation.

I was talking about Venezuela, but yeah, if the shoe fits

They haven't got a pot to piss in, so how do they propose backing a currency?

They have debts of $90Bn and rising, and their best oil workers have fled the country.

Inflation is 800%+.

I think a bit of straw clutching....

On the plus side, it is a country now where you can get a model for a night and still have change from $10.

They are being destroyed by the US. They need to do something. I would laugh if they decided to do a Cambodia with a sort of dollarization measure, but went with the Chinese RMB instead. Merkica would go apeshit and nuke the place over night.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

On the plus side, it is a country now where you can get a model for a night and still have change from $10.

They are being destroyed by the US. They need to do something. I would laugh if they decided to do a Cambodia with a sort of dollarization measure, but went with the Chinese RMB instead. Merkica would go apeshit and nuke the place over night.

It's specious at best to try and blame the US for Venezuela's catastrophes.

They've destroyed themselves with a gullible population listening to a corrupt administration throwing them populist bones whilst raping the nation.

And they've destroyed their own oil industry without any help from anyone else.

Ironically as their output falls, downward pressure on oil prices decreases, which is why OPEC and Russia can sit there and keep production as it is.

But Venezuela can't get it's oil flowing at 2006 volumes without spending a shit load of cash that it hasn't got.

The Chinese were in there like a shot offering a cash injection but you can bet your bottom dollar that they've got a great deal on crude so that doesn't benefit Venezuela in the long run. And that cash probably went to buy rice and bog roll, when what was really needed was oil infrastructure renewal.

Chavez and Maduro have fucked the place rotten.

Good old Harry pumping out the CNN spoof baloney as usual.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

They've destroyed themselves with a gullible population listening to a corrupt administration throwing them populist bones whilst raping the nation.

I thought for a moment you were talking about Thailand.

Chavez took office right after oil production hit its peak.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

If you can prove me wrong, go ahead.

But I suspect you don't have a fucking clue with your pointless, Trump-like dog whistling.

that's a low blow using the T word. How very hillary of you.

So which part of your Merkican rewritten made up historical bullshit do you want correcting on? The very first mistake you make is following the crap written by the neocons/neolibs who believe that anything other than free market capitalism (as in, the rich people hold all the card and they dictate the rule...aka Mussolini's version of corporate fascism) is bad. However, what they do not like to say is that the general standard of life of the vast majority of people in the country have had their lives immeasurably improved by what I seem to recall is dubbed the bolivarian process they are undertaking. The problems they face are a direct consequence of the 2014 ploy from the US/Saud axis of evil to flood the market with cheap oil to crash the oil price. Merkins because israel told them to. This is all about weakening wallstreet, city of london corporation and Tel Aviv challengers who base their economy on oil or gas exports... .iran, russia etc. Most of all they want to stop any one thinking that any other system than Rich having everything, and the people enslaved to them, is a good idea.

VN was a brutal place to live when they had their Merkin puppets leading the place. Anyone with half a brain knows about the Caracazo massacres. The IMF's enforced selling off of the states silverware plunged the country into depths of despair, whilst all the goodies were pilfered and robbed by the merkins through their corporation... the ones that are always conveniently at the front of the queue when the IMF is looting, pillaging and ransacking a country. When wallstreet and London had their gravy train cut off, they acted, and the result is what you see today. A sustained brutal economic assault on a population.

Of course what you are relying on are the headlines of "Chavez daughter a billionaire" and never bother to read the stories, which are full of lines such as

The Miami-based newspaper did not detail what evidence there was outlining Chavez's assets, though there have long been rumors she held a sizable fortune.
Last year, reporter María Elvira Salazar displayed what appeared to be a receipt showing millions in a bank account belonging to Gabriela Chavez withdrawn in the United States.
The receipt displayed the name Frabz Federal Bank, a fictitious bank used in a meme of fake ATM receipts.

long on tales, short on any sort of proof at all. Of course they all would have taken some dough - they are greasy dagos after all. However, they did immense good for the nation as a whole (not just the top 1% who miss the good old days of selling their country down the river for Merkin dollars.

Meanwhile, news just in from CNN

I gotta get me one of those banners.

http://www.economist.com/news/americ...orship-survive

Originally Posted by pseudolus

that's a low blow using the T word. How very hillary of you.

So which part of your Merkican rewritten made up historical bullshit do you want correcting on? The very first mistake you make is following the crap written by the neocons/neolibs who believe that anything other than free market capitalism (as in, the rich people hold all the card and they dictate the rule...aka Mussolini's version of corporate fascism) is bad. However, what they do not like to say is that the general standard of life of the vast majority of people in the country have had their lives immeasurably improved by what I seem to recall is dubbed the bolivarian process they are undertaking. The problems they face are a direct consequence of the 2014 ploy from the US/Saud axis of evil to flood the market with cheap oil to crash the oil price. Merkins because israel told them to. This is all about weakening wallstreet, city of london corporation and Tel Aviv challengers who base their economy on oil or gas exports... .iran, russia etc. Most of all they want to stop any one thinking that any other system than Rich having everything, and the people enslaved to them, is a good idea.

VN was a brutal place to live when they had their Merkin puppets leading the place. Anyone with half a brain knows about the Caracazo massacres. The IMF's enforced selling off of the states silverware plunged the country into depths of despair, whilst all the goodies were pilfered and robbed by the merkins through their corporation... the ones that are always conveniently at the front of the queue when the IMF is looting, pillaging and ransacking a country. When wallstreet and London had their gravy train cut off, they acted, and the result is what you see today. A sustained brutal economic assault on a population.

Of course what you are relying on are the headlines of "Chavez daughter a billionaire" and never bother to read the stories, which are full of lines such as



long on tales, short on any sort of proof at all. Of course they all would have taken some dough - they are greasy dagos after all. However, they did immense good for the nation as a whole (not just the top 1% who miss the good old days of selling their country down the river for Merkin dollars.

Meanwhile, news just in from CNN

It's hard to know where to start with a complete car crash of a post like this, but let's try.

The very first mistake you make is following the crap written by the neocons/neolibs who believe that anything other than free market capitalism (as in, the rich people hold all the card and they dictate the rule...aka Mussolini's version of corporate fascism) is bad.

Nope, never said that or even implied it. It's your delusional fantasy.

Norway is a brilliant example of how to exploit your national resources and support high quality, beneficial social programs.

0/1

However, what they do not like to say is that the general standard of life of the vast majority of people in the country have had their lives immeasurably improved by what I seem to recall is dubbed the bolivarian process they are undertaking.

Do you just make shit up in the hope that people will believe it?

"Currently, Venezuela leads the world with the highest inflation. In December of 2016, it reached a high of 800 percent inflation and has not significantly decreased since. According to the

LA Times

, it cost $150 to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela in 2016. This hyper inflation has caused Venezuela’s currency, the Bolivar Fuerte, to depreciate. This has caused the poverty rate of Venezuela to jump to more than 80 percent."

"

Venezuelans are suffering privation previously unheard of in what was once South America’s richest country. According to a study by three universities, 82% of households now live in poverty. That compares with 48% in 1998, when Chávez came to power. The rise in poverty follows Venezuela’s biggest-ever oil windfall. Of the $1trn the regime received in oil revenue, perhaps a quarter was stolen by insiders, according to the International Crisis Group, a think-tank. Infant mortality is rising, and Venezuelans are needlessly dying because of the shortage of medicines.

"

Stop making shit up.

0/2

The problems they face are a direct consequence of the 2014 ploy from the US/Saud axis of evil to flood the market with cheap oil to crash the oil price.

Yeah, I don't see Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or the UAE suffering... perhaps it's because they can provide free healthcare, education and infrastructure without pillaging (well actually *while* pillaging the nation's coffers). Venezuela has more oil than they do.

0/3

Of course what you are relying on are the headlines of "Chavez daughter a billionaire"

Again, some irrelevant bullshit that you have brought in to try and bolster your fictitious argument.

I never said Chavez' daughter nicked all the money, although if you think she doesn't have some state crumbs in her Abbey National Young Savers account, you're fucking retarded.

"Venezuela is the 166 least corrupt nation out of 175 countries, according to the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International. Corruption Rank in Venezuela averaged 118.82 from 1995 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 172 in 2011 and a record low of 38 in 1995."

0/4

Frankly moron would be an overestimate of your intelligence, but you should get points for being clever enough to use a meme a 7 year old would be proud of (Luigi is evidence of that).

It's a fucking tragedy that these two witless c u n t s have been allowed to destroy Venezuela the way they have, with absolutely no thought for the long term consequences of their actions.

But I don't really expect fucking idiots like yourself to see it as it is, blighted as you are by this ridiculous notion that the US is responsible for *all* of the worlds ills.

NEWS JUST IN - Harry types load of rubbish he believes is factual, but is based upon the lied and mistruths from the MERKIN propaganda factory. When asked for a quote, most people in the street shook their head in disbelief and said "harry really is a gullible moron".

Harry - here's a hint for you. When you want to "prove your point" don't pluck shit from a rockefeller and gates foundation backed regime change assisting NGO you daft fool. No wonder no body bothers to post on this forum anymore when all they get is 400 posts a day from you pumping out your CNN crap - they just read the CNN website instead and playing a broken record mp3 in the back ground if they ever miss TD

You see what I mean? You have no argument other than trying to attack the source if it doesn't agree with what is in your delusional fantasy.

I suppose it was the US president that sacked 16,000 experienced Venezuelan oil workers and replaced them with his own (incompetent) supporters. Or I suppose CNN or someone else made that up too, did they?

Would be news to all the Venezuelans who took up well paid jobs here in the sandpit, many of whom I work with.

You see, you really know jack shit, and it shows from the utter garbage you type.

You're just a twit.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

NEWS JUST IN - Harry types load of rubbish he believes is factual, but is based upon the lied and mistruths from the MERKIN propaganda factory. When asked for a quote, most people in the street shook their head in disbelief and said "harry really is a gullible moron".

Harry - here's a hint for you. When you want to "prove your point" don't pluck shit from a rockefeller and gates foundation backed regime change assisting NGO you daft fool. No wonder no body bothers to post on this forum anymore when all they get is 400 posts a day from you pumping out your CNN crap - they just read the CNN website instead and playing a broken record mp3 in the back ground if they ever miss TD

Heh...

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You see what I mean? You have no argument other than trying to attack the source if it doesn't agree with what is in your delusional fantasy.

I suppose it was the US president that sacked 16,000 experienced Venezuelan oil workers and replaced them with his own (incompetent) supporters. Or I suppose CNN or someone else made that up too, did they?

Would be news to all the Venezuelans who took up well paid jobs here in the sandpit, many of whom I work with.

You see, you really know jack shit, and it shows from the utter garbage you type.

You're just a twit.

1 - Oil workers in VN have to be paid in Bolivar, not USD, and as such, they all got the shits and left once the assault on the VN economy started. This is what they are not telling you CNN boy.
2 - Your sources are about as reliable as a pamphlet on gay rights written by Westboro Baptist Church. You get all your info from CNN and pro regime change NGOs who basically get paid to fake shit.
3 - You know nothing. Stuck in your little bubble in the "sandpit".

NEWSFLASH -

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Frankly moron would be an overestimate .... being clever enough to use a meme a 7 year old would be proud of (Luigi is evidence of that).

Have to give a thumbs up for that

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

But I don't really expect fucking idiots like yourself to see it as it is, blighted as you are by this ridiculous notion that the US is responsible for *all* of the worlds ills.

NOt all. You're a thick mick I seem to recall, and can't quite blame the owners of murika for that.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

1 - Oil workers in VN have to be paid in Bolivar, not USD, and as such, they all got the shits and left once the assault on the VN economy started. This is what they are not telling you CNN boy.
2 - Your sources are about as reliable as a pamphlet on gay rights written by Westboro Baptist Church. You get all your info from CNN and pro regime change NGOs who basically get paid to fake shit.
3 - You know nothing. Stuck in your little bubble in the "sandpit".

NEWSFLASH -

Yep, still wittering. Are you having your period or something?

2002 -- The leftist leader names loyalists to run PDVSA. Company management openly protest against him, helping set in motion a brief coup that ousts him for three days, until he is restored by supporters and loyalist troops.
2002-2003 -- PDVSA leadership walks off the job, nearly shuttering operations for almost two months. Chavez sacks 20,000 employees, takes control of the company and quickly begins using it to finance social programs.
https://www.reuters.com/article/vene...24439020100209

You quite literally have no fucking idea what you're wittering on about!