Maduro: Venezuela gets gold-backed crypto to back oil-backed Petro
Maduro announces the launch of yet another cryptocurrency "backed by gold, which is even more powerful."
Venezuela became the first country to launch its official cryptocurrency yesterday, the Petro, with a very unusual token sale that reportedly earned US$735 million on day one.
Now Maduro has declared that he will be launching Petro Gold next, which will be backed by gold, in order to back the oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency.
"Next week I'm going to launch the Petro Gold, backed by gold, which is even more powerful, that will strengthen the Petro," the president announced in a televised speech.
He's not the first person to float a gold-backed cryptocurrency. A handful of the others that have done so include the following:
- The decentralised Singapore-based DigixDAO stablecoin system backed up with gold.
- The Perth Mint's own cryptocurrency which will be backed by gold.
- Britain royal mint's gold-backed cryptocurrency.
But he's probably the first person to propose backing a cryptocurrency with gold to back an oil-backed cryptocurrency.
As a country hit by heavy international sanctions, there might be some pragmatic merit to Venezuela's blockchain digitisation of significant national assets, but the announcement of an entirely new cryptocurrency immediately after the launch of another might look like the start of the road to crypto hyperinflation.
If this seemingly improvised approach to crypto-economic policy is any indication, hard forks and airdrops might one day be on the cards for the Petro. After Petro Gold, speculators might one day be able to look forward to announcements of Petro Cash and Petro Diamond.
At a time when other countries are making serious long-term investments in blockchain technology, Venezuela's national crypotcurrencies might more closely resemble a quick pump coin in some ways. This dichotomy may sound vaguely familiar to "altcoin" enthusiasts.
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Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VEN, XLM, NANO, SALT and BTC.
