“Venezuela has pledged those reserves as backing for a digital currency dubbed the “petro,” which Maduro launched in February.”
I always see the oil backed claim when reading about the Petro. You are not going be able exchange petros for oil. It is not clear in what way it is oil backed.
“It turns out that Venezuela’s petro is hard to spot almost anywhere.”
Have anyone bought something with petros. I am not sure it really exists.
“The few buyers Reuters could locate were those who had posted about their experiences on online cryptocurrency forums.”
Only idiots would buy petros. Why would you want to give money to Maduro. There is no reason to believe petros worth $3.3 billions are sold.
“The Superintendence of Cryptoassets, the government agency that oversees the petro, is a mystery. Reuters recently visited the Finance Ministry, where the Superintendence is supposed to be housed, but was informed by a receptionist that it ‘does not yet have a physical presence here.'”
I dont understand why Maduro talks a lot about the petro when it seem to not exist. It was a stupid idea from the start.
“No matter how much oil it holds, the area lacks crucial infrastructure to get it out of the ground, including roads, pipelines and power generation, said Francisco Monaldi, a native of Venezuela who now teaches Latin American energy policy at Rice University in Houston.”
They just pointed out some bad oil field and have no plans to get the oil out of the ground.
“Reuters could not locate seven of the exchanges, which had no internet presence. Seven others did not respond to requests for comment. Italcambio, an established Venezuelan currency exchange that Maduro said would trade the coin, does not manage or sell petros, its president Carlos Dorado said in an emailed response to Reuters.”
It seems to be hard to sell petros. If you have bought petros you cant do anything with them.