The five most repeated lies about the petro, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency
In the media and social networks circulate every day opinions that point in only one direction: the failure of the Venezuelan cryptoactive. We consult an expert to know if that is possible.
The first transaction with petros, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency proposed by President Nicolás Maduro, has not been carried out yet, but some sectors have already attacked it harshly.
The most recent event occurred last Tuesday, when the opposition deputies of the National Assembly (AN), in contempt and whose acts have "absolute nullity", according to the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), declared the "illegality" of the currency digital.
The skeptical comments began since Maduro announced last December the creation of a cryptocurrency to face the serious economic situation that the country is going through, as a result of the so-called "economic war" and economic and financial sanctions against Venezuela, according to the government.
Criticism and more criticism
The critics have avoided the first emission of one hundred million of the cryptoactive, which has the value of a barrel of oil, announced by the Venezuelan president; the registration of more than 50,000 people in the National Registry of Digital Mining and the presentation of the birth certificate or 'white paper' of this Venezuelan cryptocurrency on January 14.
Next, we will present a selection of five myths that have been circulated by the media and social networks about this nascent digital currency that is backed by the South American country's oil.
- Petrosanctions?
Last Monday, the website Dollar Today, where the illegal quotes of the US currency are published in Venezuela, and which the government has accused of "directly influencing inflation," posted on its Twitter account information from the opposition economist Alexander Guerrero on alleged sanctions from Washington to whom he made transactions with petro.
https://twitter.com/DolarToday/status/950212845903347712
Through this same social network, OnixCoin, another digital currency, responded to Guerrero that they had not found the supposed information attributed to the website of the Treasury Department. "Be responsible with the things you say, please, before attacking and destroying without bases," he wrote.
https://twitter.com/onix_coin/status/950322531885600768
For Juan Carlos Valdez, Venezuelan economist and lawyer, this information about alleged penalties against those who trade with the petroleum, "evidences the fear" of those who handle the quotations of the Venezuelan black dollar, which is used to fix the prices of products and goods in Venezuela. the South American country.
- "The petro is from Maduro"
"The petro is not an instrument of the Government," said the superintendent of the cryptocurrency, Carlos Vargas, in a television interview last Tuesday. "It is a cryptoactive," he said.
According to Vargas, the petro is the "definitive solution to the economic war", with relations to the inflationary indices, which he described as "appalling".
"We are turning Venezuela into a vanguard country," he said. In addition, he added that in the coming years the South American country would be "totally" incorporated into the use of cryptocurrencies.
"Attacking the petro is foolish, there are more than 1,600 cryptocurrencies in the world," Vargas recalled.
- "They are simple bonuses"
A bond is a certificate signed between a debtor and a creditor where there is a commitment to pay a certain amount in an agreed time, in addition to the established interest. Does this look like a petro?
Valdez responds with a question: What does a bonus have to do with a cryptocurrency? And remember that the debt papers have a set time, that they are not made for the exchange of goods and services and that from the beginning you know what their useful life will be.
"There is a lot of ignorance about the petro," says the Venezuelan lawyer consulted, adding that this "is natural because it is a fairly new issue."
- "It's a bubble"
A speculative bubble is characterized by unpredictable, abrupt or sustained increases in the value of an asset or a product.
In the case of petro, which has a base based on real goods, explains Valdéz, it must be known that its value will be affected by two fundamental elements:
1- The value of the goods that support it: initially oil and then minerals and other hydrocarbons.
2- The speculative element: it is a currency and can be quoted on the stock exchange and its market value will depend on supply and demand.
The specialist in tax and financial law reminds that the rise or fall of the goods that support the petro, in this case the crude oil, will influence its value.
"As the petro has support in real goods, and everything that has support in real goods is appetizing, it can be predicted that it will have an important demand," he says.
"Its market value is going to rise substantially," he says.
- "Compromise all reservations"
Venezuela has the largest certified oil reserve in the world and is the first in Latin America in gold reserves.
"We have enough to sustain the petro," says Vargas, before the question of the depletion of those reserves calculated for a few hundred years.
"The petro is born with confidence," he says. Also, remember that Venezuela is internationally recognized for the cancellation of its commitments.
"Investors know that Venezuela has historically been a good debt payer, it has never fallen into default," he concludes.