Venezuela announced National Cryptocurrency

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced on Sunday that his country will create a national cryptocurrency called the Petro. Its goal is “to combat what the leftist leader says is a financial ‘blockade’ against the crisis-hit nation spurred by U.S. Sanctions,” Reuters reported.

Maduro explained that the new currency will be “backed by oil, gold, gas and diamond reserves,” Agencia Venezolana de Noticias wrote. He was quoted saying:

"I want to announce that Venezuela is going to implement a new cryptocurrency system based on oil reserves, in order to advance in the area of monetary sovereignty. This will allow us to move towards new forms of international financing for the economic and social development of the countrY"

Venezuelans Turn to Bitcoin Mining:

Venezuela’s fiat currency, the bolivar, has been in a free fall. It lost about 57 percent last month in the black market, dragging the country’s monthly minimum wage down to $4.30, the news outlet detailed. “Millions of Venezuelans plunged into poverty are struggling to eat three meals a day.”

Read complete article by KEVIN HELMS : https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuela-oil-backed-national-cryptocurrency-petro/

KEVIN HELMS:

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography