Venezuela Announces the “Petro” Digital Currency Backed by Gold, Oil and Diamonds

By Rory Hall

Apparently, Venezuelan President Maduro is following China’s lead, but instead of a subtle rollout over time so as not to cause some kind of market shake up, he has decided that now is as good a time as any to announce the creation of a new digital currency, the Petro, backed by Venezuela’s gold, oil and diamond reserves.

Venezuela is creating a digital currency to combat a financial blockade by the United States, President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday.

The Petro will be backed by Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves and its gold and diamond holdings, the president said in his weekly television program.

“This is going to allow us to move toward new forms of international financing for the country’s economic and social development,” the president said.

The government also announced the creation of a “blockchain observatory” — a software platform for buying and selling virtual currency.

Although the president did not offer many details, analysts such as Henkel Garcia see the possibility of success as limited.

“You can build it, but trust, acceptance and use is what will determine the cryptocurrency’s success. For me, it will be quite limited. The bolivar is is also backed by reserves and has no strength,” Garcia, director of consultancy Econometrica.

“Confidence in a country is going to depend on the levels of production and the wealth it generates. For example, people trust the dollar for the levels of wealth associated with it,” he said.

The announcement comes as Venezuela faces acute financing problems after creditors and ratings agencies declared the government and state-run oil firm PDVSA to be in partial default for missing interest and principle payments on bonds. Source

The unintended consequences of U.S. sanctions are beginning to come home to roost. We have been reporting Putin’s frustration and elation regarding the sanctions against Russia, but now we see what can happen when dealing with someone without the diplomatic skills of a statesman.

Maduro blames sanctions imposed by the United States in August barring American citizens and companies from buying any new Venezuelan government or PDVSA bonds.

Venezuela is mired in a deep economic crisis triggered mainly by a fall in crude oil prices and a drop in oil production. Petroleum is its main source of hard currency.

Over the past year, the Venezuelan bolivar has plummeted 95.5 percent against the dollar on the black market.

Virtual currency is not new for Venezuela — considered by specialists a haven for bitcoin production with minimal costs.  Source

The next question is the play against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Will TriEvil use this situation to launch more sophisticated sanctions, taxes and regulations against cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in particular?

It is estimated that tens of thousands of people mine bitcoin to protect themselves from inflation — set to surpass 2,300 percent in 2018 — by exchanging earnings for dollars or more bitcoin.

In Venezuela, a the law does not expressly prohibit mining bitcoin — experts say officials are involved — but the authorities persecute those who do it for power theft. Source

Not sure that anyone was expecting this but it is not surprising as the world has been showing deep concern regarding the Federal Reserve Note and the abuse the Untied States government has foisted upon the recipients of world reserve currency. People, in general, will take abuse only for so long, and once they reach their breaking point that’s it. It sounds like Venezuela has reached their breaking point.

WOW!! What will this do to the gold, oil and diamond markets? We should be hearing a lot more about this very shortly or the sounds of market madness may be drowned out by the sound of bombs dropping in and around President Maduro’s palace.

Rory Hall’s website is The Daily Coin. Beginning in 1987 Rory has written over 1,000 articles and produced more than 300 videos on topics ranging from the precious metals market, economic and monetary policies, preparedness as well as geopolitical events. His articles have been published by Zerohedge, SHTFPlan, Sprott Money, GoldSilver, Silver Doctors, SGTReport, and a great many more. Rory was a producer and daily contributor at SGTReport between 2012 and 2014. He has interviewed experts such as Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Dr. Marc Faber, Eric Sprott, Gerald Celente and Peter Schiff, to name but a few. Don’t forget to visit The Daily Coin and Shadow of Truth YouTube channels to enjoy original videos and some of the best economic, precious metals, geopolitical and preparedness news from around the world.