Petro Coin: Trump vs. Maduro

Venezuela’s new crypto-currency, the Petro, is possibly the very first blockchain which is exclusively mined by a government and backed up by a barrel of crude oil per coin. Because Venezuela has a very large oil reserve, they are able to peg the Petro to a barrel of their oil. This effectively makes the Petro a blockchain based competition to the US-Saudi Petrodollar, which is of course USD backed by Saudi oil. Traditionally, the United States has a habit of overthrowing governments which attempt to peg their currency to oil, which is seen as a threat to the hegemonic reign of the Petrodollar.

So will the US overthrow the government of Venezuela? Well, this may have been in the works for a while now. US sanctions have been crushing Venezuela’s economy, and as a result, that nation is dealing with hyper-inflation, and Venezuelans are leaving to other counties just to find work. Ironically, the crushing US sanctions seems to be the reason why Venezuela invented and is marketing the Petro crypto-currency in the first place: To get around US sanctions!

President Trump is not happy about the Petro, and has had it added to the list of Venezuela’s sanctions. Meaning that US citizenry could get into trouble if they buy or sell with the Petro.

Maduro has been re-elected, and Washington is not happy about it. Trump does not recognize Maduro’s election win, the US government has called it illegitimate. President Trump also is known for having called out Venezuela’s government during his United Nations speech, and he made it clear that he intended to topple Maduro; who took Trump’s remarks as a death threat. Well, now that Maduro’s Administration is officially competing with the US Petrodollar via their Petro e-Token, how long will it be until something strange happens in Venezuela in order to replace that government?

Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2018/03/20/this-is-why-the-venezuela-cryptocurrency-matters/#7301c9334a56

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/venezuela-petro-cryptocurrency-180219065112440.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-abortion/ireland-ends-abortion-ban-as-quiet-revolution-transforms-country-idUSKCN1IR089

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-09-19/trump-singles-out-venezuela-for-criticism-in-un-speech