Venezuela banks on cryptocurrency, but it remains ‘non-transferable’
Venezuela’s controversial cryptocurrency was launched six months ago but has been left in limbo ever since. Now, though, President Nicolas Maduro’s government insists it will start working.
That wasn’t Armando’s experience when he tried to make a transaction using the petro.
“Non-transferable” was the message that came up on his telephone, shown to AFP, when Armando – not his real name – tried to use the half petro he bought earlier this year.
Maduro launched the petro to try to circumvent debilitating United States sanctions – but the problem is that it can’t be exchanged for money, goods or even other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
It is also not listed on virtual exchanges, although the Venezuelan government has set its value at $60, anchoring it to the price of a barrel of oil.
“It still doesn’t exist,” Moises Rendon, from the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.
However, Maduro says that from Oct 1 “the petro will start functioning as a currency of exchange of purchase and conversion.”
It will be offered in auctions through which private companies can access currencies, within the framework of an exchange control that has been operating since 2003.
This way, Maduro says, “it will be immersed in the global market.”
However, Rendon says “it’s too late to save the petro. There’s no confidence and it won’t get any” while the government prevents its value from fluctuating freely. (AFP)