Venezuela to Peg Pension, Salary Systems to Petro Cryptocurrency15.08.2018

According to President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela intends to use its cryptocurrency ‘petro’ as the official unit of calculation. This is reported by ABC International, referring to the television statement of the president. According to the announcement, the state oil and gas company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) will use Petro as an obligatory unit of calculation.

This step was taken in the framework of the attempts of the Venezuelan government to deal with the growing economic turmoil, weakening the currency regulation. On August 20, the government plans to denominate the national currency of the bolivar and create a "sovereign money" tied to Petro.

In turn, the central bank will begin to publish the price of the sovereign bolivar in relation to Petro and "the price of Petro in accordance with international currencies", reports ABC. In addition, salaries and pensions in the country will also be tied to the cost of Petro.

For the first time, Maduro announced plans to issue a national cryptocurrency in December last year. Since its debut in February this year, the national cryptocurrency has repeatedly attracted the wrath of both local politicians and foreign countries. One of the US senators asked the Ministry of Finance to prohibit the spread of Venezuelan Petro. Also, against Petro was President Trump, and his administration banned American citizens from participating in cryptocurrency transactions in connection with US sanctions against Venezuela. Subsequently, Venezuela thanked him for advertising Petro.

At the beginning of the week, a member of the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly said that the parliament is preparing a reform to the country's Constitution, which includes the creation of a central bank for cryptocurrencies.

In general, the Venezuela's cryptocurrency saga continues to gain momentum and the decision to link pensions and salaries to Petro is just the tip of the iceberg of Maduro's controversial actions in this area. In March, the president urged citizens to obtain cryptocurrencies, and three months later banned the import of equipment for mining.

At the same time, the president decided to take care of the cryptocurrency literacy of his country's citizens, most of whom live below the poverty line. In February, soon after the release of state cryptocurrency, Venezuela opened a school for teaching citizens crypto-economics.

Venezuela’s cryptocurrency Saga to be continued…