4 ms·

Venezuela ties its currency to cryptocoin

16 points by chanfest22 8y ago

prolikewh0a 8y ago
Trump actually signed an executive order banning American's from purchasing the cryptocurrency. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jzyn/president-donald-trump-signs-executive-order-banning-venezuelas-petro-cryptocurrency-maduro https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jzyn/president-...
- guidedlight 8y ago
  Of course, Trump wants people to buy oil with freedom dollars.
  - lainga 8y ago
    "Fie!" declares a refinery manager in Galveston, throwing his mining rig in the dumpster.
    - newswriter99 8y ago
      I'm missing something. Why a refinery in Galveston?
      - sremani 8y ago
        The Texas and Louisiana coast has most refineries in USA. To my knowledge there are no refineries in Galveston which is a tourist spot (at least for people in texas). There are refineries in near by Texas City.
        newswriter99 8y ago
        There's Marathon's Galveston Bay refinery but it's technically closer to Texas City than Galveston island itself. Then there's Enjet on Pelican Island but they don't have a refinery on-site if I'm not mistaken. It's a topic I'm well-versed in, hence why I asked about Galveston.
      - lainga 8y ago
        The rig was in the basement of his summer house, secreted away from the prying eyes of the SEC, until such time as he had enough petros to get his hands on sweet Bolivarian crypto-crude. (The point being, it's neither clear how the US government intends to enforce its ban, nor who in the US would be buying oil with petros anyway...)
X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago
techcrunch is pretty low on details here. The sources that wikipedia cites on the subject are: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/here-s-what-maduro-has-said-of-venezuela-s-petro-cryptocurrency https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/here-s-wh... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/venezuela-prepares-to-devalue-currency-amid-fears-it-may-worsen-crisis-bolivar https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/venezuela-prep... https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuelans-to-be-paid-at-least-half-a-petro-a-month/ https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuelans-to-be-paid-at-least-hal... Notable details: They claim they will allow the price to fluctate. The minimum wage will be 0.5 Petros. The inital price for 1 Petro is 3.6k sovereign bolivars
aeternus 8y ago
Dupe, plus a more informative article is linked in the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17799490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17799490
newswriter99 8y ago
I've written about this twice now. No one in the oil/gas industry is buying (no pun intended) the idea that Venezuela's Petro is anything but a sham. I mean for crying outloud it's a commodity-backed cryptocoin on a private chain run by a country. How is that anything near the definition of a true cryptocurrency?
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  It is actually a crypto future on top of weak economy. Not really a currency. Essentially they tied their currency value to fast junk bonds. Good Job /s

16 points by chanfest22 8y ago

Trump actually signed an executive order banning American's from purchasing the cryptocurrency. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jzyn/president-donald-trump-signs-executive-order-banning-venezuelas-petro-cryptocurrency-maduro https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jzyn/president-...

guidedlight 8y ago
Of course, Trump wants people to buy oil with freedom dollars.
- lainga 8y ago
  "Fie!" declares a refinery manager in Galveston, throwing his mining rig in the dumpster.
  - newswriter99 8y ago
    I'm missing something. Why a refinery in Galveston?
    - sremani 8y ago
      The Texas and Louisiana coast has most refineries in USA. To my knowledge there are no refineries in Galveston which is a tourist spot (at least for people in texas). There are refineries in near by Texas City.
      - newswriter99 8y ago
        There's Marathon's Galveston Bay refinery but it's technically closer to Texas City than Galveston island itself. Then there's Enjet on Pelican Island but they don't have a refinery on-site if I'm not mistaken. It's a topic I'm well-versed in, hence why I asked about Galveston.
    - lainga 8y ago
      The rig was in the basement of his summer house, secreted away from the prying eyes of the SEC, until such time as he had enough petros to get his hands on sweet Bolivarian crypto-crude. (The point being, it's neither clear how the US government intends to enforce its ban, nor who in the US would be buying oil with petros anyway...)

X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago

techcrunch is pretty low on details here. The sources that wikipedia cites on the subject are: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/here-s-what-maduro-has-said-of-venezuela-s-petro-cryptocurrency https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/here-s-wh... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/venezuela-prepares-to-devalue-currency-amid-fears-it-may-worsen-crisis-bolivar https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/venezuela-prep... https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuelans-to-be-paid-at-least-half-a-petro-a-month/ https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuelans-to-be-paid-at-least-hal... Notable details: They claim they will allow the price to fluctate. The minimum wage will be 0.5 Petros. The inital price for 1 Petro is 3.6k sovereign bolivars

aeternus 8y ago

Dupe, plus a more informative article is linked in the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17799490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17799490

newswriter99 8y ago

I've written about this twice now. No one in the oil/gas industry is buying (no pun intended) the idea that Venezuela's Petro is anything but a sham. I mean for crying outloud it's a commodity-backed cryptocoin on a private chain run by a country. How is that anything near the definition of a true cryptocurrency?

AstralStorm 8y ago
It is actually a crypto future on top of weak economy. Not really a currency. Essentially they tied their currency value to fast junk bonds. Good Job /s