What Is Petro?

Petro is an oil-backed cryptocurrency created in Venezuela. The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro made an announcement that this cryptocurrency soon will become an official currency for the oil company PDVSA.

Maduro continued that in a few days, the country will have a new accounting unit that will be based on the value of petro and also on its price. This means that the new accounting unit will be the second one in the country and will start doing operations as a must-unit for the PDVSA oil industry. This unit will of course, still exist right next to the sovereign currency and that is the current official national currency at the moment. When Petro is launched, interestingly enough, five zeros will be eventually removed from sovereign bolivar which is a part of the monetary conversion. The Central Bank of Venezuela will then switch the sovereign currency to petro. Petro’s value can be used for international currencies as well.

Even though many oil importers were included in the drama around petro, they still refuse to buy the oil from Venezuela using this cryptocurrency despite the many expanded uses.

Launching the Petro cryptocurrency didn’t quite go well with the US administration. The same administration put seriously tough sanctions on Venezuela due to human right violations. They claim that the current situation and rise of Petro led to an extreme hyperinflation and citizen don’t really have many options except bitcoin. However, citizens of Venezuela confronted the government and prevented bitcoin so they could help protect their wealth.