Cryptocurrency
Digital Dollars: Space Race Or Cold War?
As reported at Forbes, “Venezuela crops up in talks about Bitcoin all the time. The political instability, I was told, meant that Venezuelans preferred the safety and security of Bitcoin ‘digital gold’ over their own hyperinflated currency or President Maduro’s own cryptocurrency, the ‘Petro’. This was created in 2017 and is supposedly backed by Venezuela’s […]
As reported at Forbes, “Venezuela crops up in talks about Bitcoin all the time. The political instability, I was told, meant that Venezuelans preferred the safety and security of Bitcoin ‘digital gold’ over their own hyperinflated currency or President Maduro’s own cryptocurrency, the ‘Petro’. This was created in 2017 and is supposedly backed by Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. The President has just sent a whole bunch of Petros to the country’s doctors, although whether medical professionals will hold on to these digital tokens or not it is too soon to tell.
“Venezuelans seen less than keen of their version of central bank digital currency, since Petros trade for half their official value on the streets (well, web sites) of Caracas, and I couldn’t help but notice that when Panama-based cryptocurrency merchant-gateway startup Cryptobuyer announced a partnership with Venezuelan company to process cryptocurrency payments for thousands of local businesses, they were quoted as having no plans to support the Petro alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum and all the other favourites.
“It’s the world’s first Bitcoin economy, then? Well, not really…”