Why The Venezuelan 'Petro' Cryptocurrency Has Dangerous Implications Reaching Far Beyond South America

Venezuela has been experiencing devastating amounts of hyper inflation in recent years causing its citizens to turn to Bitcoin & cryptocurrencies as their primary means of stored value, payment for food, shelter etc. As often discussed in his lectures, Andreas Antonopolis refers to the recent trend in Venezuelan citizens using Bitcoin to order food on Amazon, having it shipped to bordering countries then smuggled into Venezuela. This is how bad things have gotten for Venezuelan citizens. The increased use of Bitcoin their citizens have been forced to adopt was seen as a major threat in the eyes of the Venezuelan government. In an attempt to recapture financial control over its citizens, the same corrupt regime that artificially tanked their own currency & bankrupted their own citizens in the name of increased profits on their commodity exports - has announced recently that they'll be issuing their own "Petro" coin built on the Ethereum platform.

Petro coin overview:

1. Pre-sale will begin on Feb. 20, according to President Nicolas Maduro.

2. Circulation: 100Million issued tokens, each valued at - and backed by - the equivalent of one barrel of Venezuelan crude oil.

3. Market Cap: $6Billion

** The United States Government warned potential investors curious about the Petro that, dealing in it may conflict with international sanctions the U.S. has against Venezuela.**

My worry is that other nations in danger of hyper inflation i.e. China, Russia, etc. are watching how this plays out as they consider issuing their own government-backed cryptocurrency in anticipation of increased demand around Bitcoin and drastically lowered levels of trust among citizens in the value of the current fiat systems and currency wars causing the citizens of these nations to get caught in the crossfire. An example of this would be the fact that price spikes in Bitcoin can be directly correlated to Chinese Yuan devaluation decisions made by the Chinese government.

I can foresee Venezuelan citizens rejecting this Petro coin in favor of Bitcoin which I fear could provoke the Venezuelan government into increased crackdowns on their citizens trying to force them to abandon Bitcoin in favor of the Petro. I ask you guys to upvote this and lets develop a discussion in the comments around what implications this has on the cryptocurrency space. Bitcoin was created to insulate citizens of these countries from the devastating consequences of hyper inflation and artificial fiat currency devaluation. Should the Petro find any form of success I fear it could cause other nations to follow suit - centralizing and controlling a technology fundamentally designed for decentralization and disbursement of control.