Cryptocurrency and the Venezuelan crisis
![Venezuelan Petro](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSiN1u6S9pfbEwfn2aqeH7ZmGpom5Vhrrewtj49ZNWDTi/Venezuela-petro.jpg)
Venezuela is currently suffering from hyperinflation which caused people to starve and businesses to shut down; however, recently many countries are sending humanitarian aids to the country; one of these countries is the U.S.A.
Everything was said above is known to the majority of the people, but what the majority of people do not know is that the U.S.A who is sending humanitarian aids is the main cause of this crisis. Venezuela has the largest oil reserve in the world, and the Venezuelan government has strong relationships with Russia, and due to the cold war going on between the U.S.A and Russia, the U.S.A decided to punish Venezuela for its freedom of choice and for alliancing Russia by imposing sanctions on Venezuelan oil. these sanctions caused Venezuela more than $6 Billions since August 2017.
As a reaction, the Venezuelan president Maduro decided to overcome these sanctions by dropping the Dollar and using cryptocurrency for oil-trade. "Petro", this is the name of the cryptocurrency, it was launched in February 2018, and it is supposed to be backed by the country's reserves of oil. Maduro stated that Venezuela would issue 100 million tokens of the Petro, and a cryptocurrency government advisory group called VIBE was established to launch the new cryptocurrency.
A lot of people believe that this is a stupid idea because the whole point of cryptocurrencies is that they aren’t issued or controlled by any government or entity and that its value isn't linked to any physical asset. On the other hand, Petro is issued by the Venezuelan government, and its value is linked or backed by Venezuela's oil.
Is this new cryptocurrency just a failure, or will it start a new kind of cryptocurrencies? What do you think about this new cryptocurrency guys? Leave your opinions in the comments section.