Venezuela’s own oil-backed cryptocurrency is available for presale today
Venezuela launched the presale of its own cryptocurrency, the petro, today. There are currently 82 million tokens available, which the government plans to follow with an initial coin offering (ICO) launch in a month. It’s the world’s first sovereign cryptocurrency, built on the Ethereum blockchain and intended in part to save the country from wild inflation. The bolivar has reached quadruple-figure inflation recently, and one bolivar is currently worth 0.00004 USD.
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s intention is that the new digital coin will boost the Venezuelan economy and be an alternative national currency to the bolivar, as stated on the virtual coin’s website. Eventually, he plans to issue 100 million petros, backed by 100...