Bitcoin Forum

Venezuelans can only use the state-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, to pay for passport fees starting next week, the country’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez said in a press conference Friday, Oct. 5.

Ahead of Petro’s official “launch” in November, Rodriguez confirmed that as of Monday, Oct. 8, fees for all passport applications will only be payable in Petro, and will cost an increased amount: 2 petros for a new passport and 1 petro for an extension.

The average monthly minimum wage in Venezuela, Bloomberg reports, is four times less than the cost of the raised passport fee. 

“In the case of Venezuelans who are abroad, until the first day of November the cost will be $200 for issuance and $100 for extensions,” Rodriguez stated, according to leading Latin American newspaper El Universal.

Venezuela has sought to combat the side-effects of rampant inflation and a failing economy by embracing the use of cryptocurrency to circumvent capital controls.

As Cointelegraph reported, Petro, President Nicolas Maduro’s purported solution to the country’s economic crisis, has consistently courted controversy, with accusations last week claiming its developers copied the whitepaper of altcoin Dash.

Along with the passport fees shake-up, Rodriguez also announced the formation of a dedicated migration police force, ostensibly designed “to preserve citizen security and migratory control.”

Bloomberg notes that around 5,000 citizens flee Venezuela each day.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-mandates-passport-fees-must-be-paid-in-controversial-cryptocurrency-petro

From where Venezuelan will have the money to get 1 petro if they are unable to find something to eat...
The use of technology is good but an initial airdrop has to be done so people can embrace this new cryptocurrency and use it.

Hope can help cryptocurrency to venezuela for the economic crisis
And action for mandate regulations for passport fees will also help for the community
For sure new technologies are can help this right decycame from venezuela Vice President

Crappy journalism strikes again.
There is no such thing as an average minimum wage. It's simply a minimum wage!!!
Probably this is a simple trap to make sure nobody is able to get a passport and flee the country.


Yeah right!
You know why there is a god knows how many zeros inflation in Venezuela?, it's because they print money and they have no goods to balance the market.

LOL. This is just one way to force Venezuela to used their Petro, perhaps they knew that a lot of them are applying and thinking of leaving the country, so they wanted to milk them before they can fled. ;D. So if you really wanted to get out of the shit you are on right now, I would say Venezuelans will really go for it and say f**k the government of Maduro.

Would be interesting to watch how Dash does in this situation and especially post launch of Petro in November.
So far, Dash has been adopted by quite a few Venezuelan merchants (more than 50% of Dash accepting merchants are from Venezuela; https://twitter.com/StayDashy/status/1048678327693856768). And to top it all, there are allegations of Petro being a Dash lookalike.
Personally, I don't think a state-backed (in this case, state enforced) crypto like Petro will do well anywhere outside the country. Venezuela had offered a 30% discount to India if they purchase oil with crypto but they declined the offer (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/India-Wont-Pay-For-Venezuelan-Oil-With-Petro-Cryptocurrency.html).