[2018-02-21] Venezuelan Petro on Pre-Sale, How Has it Been Received?

[Dany44]

Tuesday saw the government of Venezuela launch the pre-sale for its Petro coin, so what is it all about?

The Venezuelan government built and oil-backed digital currency called the Petro took its first steps towards being a functional alternative to a currency facing hyperinflation on Tuesday as it went on pre-sale.

The government released information and guides on how to use it as well as what its uses are, including paying taxes, fees and other public needs.

It was first proposed in early December 2017 by President Nicolas Maduro as a way to circumvent US sanctions, amid an economic crisis and a plunge in the value of the local currency, the Bolivar.

Pre-sale

Tuesday marked the first occasion where citizens could start buying up the Petro, with 82.4 mln tokens available initially.

Maduro declared at the launch:

"The Petro is born and we are going to have total success for the welfare of Venezuela. ... The largest and most important companies and Blockchain in the world are with Venezuela, we are going to sign agreements."

The Petro is directly tied to the price of a barrel of oil, meaning that its price will be determined by the closing price of oil the day before.

This is the first instance of a governmental backed digital coin being sold to its citizens, but it has already attracted much criticism.

Criticism far and wide

From outside of Venezuela there has already been condemnation of this ploy as US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez denounced Venezuela's cryptocurrency in an open letter in January.

Within Venueula, the opposition-run congress declared that the Petro would be illegal. The legislative body argued that the issuance would effectively be borrowing against the country's oil reserves, thus violating laws setting out that Congress must approve government borrowing.

Source: https://cryptocomes.com/venezuelan-petro-pre-sale-how-has-it-been-received

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[Cryptoprimes]

Someone told they already collected $735 million at first day. Do you believe these numbers guys?

[numizmat]

Someone told they already collected $735 million at first day. Do you believe these numbers guys?

Many remain unconvinced, including most of Maduro’s own government, who have declared the ICO illegal.
The US are concerned that the sale of Petro is being carried out in order to raise funds that will circumvent financial sanctions that have been imposed on the controversial state. Others have labelled the ICO a pre-sale of oil, which will cause issues in the near future. This is primarily because some of the oil that is being used as backing for the ICO is yet to be mined, and does not belong entirely to the Venezuelan government: Controversial Venezuelan Pre-Sale For Petro Goes Ahead

[Cryptoprimes]

Someone told they already collected $735 million at first day. Do you believe these numbers guys?

Many remain unconvinced, including most of Maduro’s own government, who have declared the ICO illegal.
The US are concerned that the sale of Petro is being carried out in order to raise funds that will circumvent financial sanctions that have been imposed on the controversial state. Others have labelled the ICO a pre-sale of oil, which will cause issues in the near future. This is primarily because some of the oil that is being used as backing for the ICO is yet to be mined, and does not belong entirely to the Venezuelan government: Controversial Venezuelan Pre-Sale For Petro Goes Ahead

I hope it will help Venezuela government to become more transparent and clear. This country really needs more control if we look at the crime and corruption rate.

[Carlton Banks]

I hope it will help Venezuela government to become more transparent and clear. This country really needs more control if we look at the crime and corruption rate.

The crime is because of mass-starvation, caused by too much control. Starving, desperate people don't care about morality, they care about surviving.

And you seem to be misunderstanding the nature of corruption. Corruption is perpetrated by people with control, not people without it. All the problems in Venezuela are being caused by too much control by the state, not a lack of state control.

[okae]

I hope it will help Venezuela government to become more transparent and clear. This country really needs more control if we look at the crime and corruption rate.

The crime is because of mass-starvation, caused by too much control. Starving, desperate people don't care about morality, they care about surviving.

And you seem to be misunderstanding the nature of corruption. Corruption is perpetrated by people with control, not people without it. All the problems in Venezuela are being caused by too much control by the state, not a lack of state control.

Agree with you, but the most scared thing is that it seems that will non-stop for a very long time in that country like in some others unfortunately.

For me this news bring nothing new to the table except that more corruption is coming if this is possible, don't forget that he is only trying to "get more" than he have...

[gentlemand]

The Venezuelan government built and oil-backed digital currency called the Petro took its first steps towards being a functional alternative to a currency facing hyperinflation on Tuesday as it went on pre-sale.

As I understand it the backing is based on the price of yesterday's oil. However that oil price is set in... wait for it...

Bolivars.

So what they're trying to do is force the official government exchange rate on people which no one on the street pays any attention to. If this becomes a major thing then they're trapping people even deeper inside the disaster they've created.

[TraderTimm]

Maduro is going to use his mustache magic to make a ERC20 shit-token "backed" by oil? The same oil that can't be processed because he nationalized all the refiners and shut most of the infrastructure down?
What makes Maduro qualified to run anything like this? He's already proven his incompetence by hyper-inflating the Bolivar to unreal levels, but suddenly this shit-token is going to save everyone?

WRONG.

Bitcoin is saving Venezuelans, not this state-derived bullshit. Maduro's "Petro" is going to go down as one of the worst ICO's that ever existed, after it is mismanaged just like his shitty currency the Bolivar was (and is).

Anyone participating in this "pre-sale" is either an idiot, or someone who thinks they can sell quick to dump near what will be the historical highs.

What a fucking joke.

[Betwrong]

Maduro is going to use his mustache magic to make a ERC20 shit-token "backed" by oil? The same oil that can't be processed because he nationalized all the refiners and shut most of the infrastructure down?
What makes Maduro qualified to run anything like this? He's already proven his incompetence by hyper-inflating the Bolivar to unreal levels, but suddenly this shit-token is going to save everyone?

WRONG.

Bitcoin is saving Venezuelans, not this state-derived bullshit. Maduro's "Petro" is going to go down as one of the worst ICO's that ever existed, after it is mismanaged just like his shitty currency the Bolivar was (and is).

Anyone participating in this "pre-sale" is either an idiot, or someone who thinks they can sell quick to dump near what will be the historical highs.

What a fucking joke.

I think not only idiots and traders are buying this coin. People of Venezuela believe that Petro will be supported by the government unlike other cryptos which being autocratic regime as they are they can simply ban. It's possible that in the light of ongoing hyperinflation many citizens of Venezuela see the coin as their only hope in attempts of saving at least part of their life savings. Unless Maduro will be overthrown in April petro might survive the next couple of years imo.

[Carlton Banks]

I think not only idiots and traders are buying this coin.

You're right, it's just idiots

People of Venezuela believe that Petro will be supported by the government

That's the best reason Venezuelans have not to use this new currency. The Venezuelan government tried this trick at least once recently (re-introduced the Bolivar as the "Fuerte Bolivar"). The "Fuerte" ("strong" in Spanish) version crashed just the same as the original.

Venezuelan people are unlikely to fall for the same trick 3 times.

unlike other cryptos which being autocratic regime as they are they can simply ban.

The Venezuelan government did "simply" ban cryptocurrencies, and it simply didn't work. Now Maduro + cronies want to pretend it was their idea the whole time, lol

It's possible that in the light of ongoing hyperinflation many citizens of Venezuela see the coin as their only hope in attempts of saving at least part of their life savings. Unless Maduro will be overthrown in April petro might survive the next couple of years imo.

Very unlikely. People have already invested in the now "legal" (lol) cryptocurrencies in Venezuela, they've already disposed of the worthless Venezuelan state issued money. They're starting from nothing in many ways, and very unlikely to trust a government managed currency for a long, long time. Hopefully never.

You've made 5 statements, all of which were wrong. That's 0 out of 5.

[InvoKing]

-snip-

I read this information yesterday in the BBC website but they stated that there isn't yet a public official link to visit so how could they sell $735 million at first day? I think it is just a propaganda.
Searching today for a link, i find this http://www.elpetro.gob.ve/index-en.html

The PETRO (PTR) will be backed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the wealth of its large crude oil reserves. More importantly, the Petro has been created in an innovative manner, using the highest standards in block chain technology and information security, thinking of a future where electronic asset-representations will enable more direct trade as well as government work within the framework of true financial and economic independence.

If you wish to exchange your PTRs for another type of cryptoasset or fiduciary currency, you only need to access any of the electronic trading sites authorized by the Republic (for Bs/PTR operations) or any of the international exchanges that accept PETRO.

I think it is all related to exchanges accepting the new token, the more they are the more successful will be, but i don't think the USA et al. will let it succeed, they will impose democratic sanctions in these exchanges and will try to shut it.

[ciappa]

Sorry for my ignorance, but i have found this form to buy Petro: https://regpetro.mppeuct.gob.ve/natural
On presale are allowed venezuelan citizens only? 

[gentlemand]

Sorry for my ignorance, but i have found this form to buy Petro: https://regpetro.mppeuct.gob.ve/natural
On presale are allowed venezuelan citizens only? 

Considering their economic track record would you really, really want to buy in?

I can't see anything on there about nationalities. And this mentions plenty of foreign money - https://zycrypto.com/petro-735-million-raised-venezuela-first-20-hours-cryptocurrency/

[ciappa]

Sorry for my ignorance, but i have found this form to buy Petro: https://regpetro.mppeuct.gob.ve/natural
On presale are allowed venezuelan citizens only? 

Considering their economic track record would you really, really want to buy in?

I can't see anything on there about nationalities. And this mentions plenty of foreign money - https://zycrypto.com/petro-735-million-raised-venezuela-first-20-hours-cryptocurrency/

I am waiting now for hours for the confirmation mail containing download link to wallet, but it is not coming in...
And sure, due it is the first cryptocurrency for a country, i would make a small contribution.
IMO it can be a great success 

[Zicadis]

Someone told they already collected $735 million at first day. Do you believe these numbers guys?

Actually saw this on Reuters  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-venezuela/venezuela-says-launch-of-petro-cryptocurrency-raised-735-million-idUSKCN1G506F

should this turn out to be a success story maybe countries not entertaining the use of cryptos will loosen up and allow cryptocurrencies to be used, seems this is going to be one of the biggest token sales of all time!

[veleten]

at least his cryptocurrency is backed by some asset,oil in this case
despite of all of the bad decisions Venezualian goverment made
this one could be considered "correct" given the circumstances
he also ordered to allocate funds for some "student" crypto mining farms to be established
the galloping inflation and lack of goods,coupled with an economical blocade is hard to fight
North Korea being the prime example,lets see how they manage to integrate cryptocurrencies into a planned,dying economy

[ninche]

i would never trust a coin made by Venezuela government

[veleten]

i would never trust a coin made by Venezuela government

yeah much better to trust some random coin made by unknown people
people will trust anything that brings profit,there is no doubt about it
the problem is it,probably,won't be profitable given the ability to screw everything up by Venezualian goverment
they have huge oil reserves,could have done much better with what they have

[CryptoBry]

Although I really doubt the long-term viability of this project, I am still wishing the people behind this Petro project good luck. I am sure that they can get interested buyers and backers of the project because this is being tied to the natural oil resources of the country which can be lucrative to say the least. People manning the project should be using the funds well for the benefits of the people and this will will become one of the most popular moves ever made by their leader. However, if they have a different purpose in mind then this can go on to be a big failure.

[numizmat]

This "ICO" still have several issues which need to be clarified by the government:

• The price of oil is volatile considering the complexity of the industry.
• Oil is a depletable asset, and one cannot practically exchange Petro units for barrels of oil.
• The Venezuelan opposition has labeled it as a scheme to enhance corruption since it is not regulated.
• U.S. and EU have raised concerns regarding sanctions placed on Venezuela.