Venezuela Starts Converting Pensioners' Payments to Crypto 'Petro': Report
December 14 2018 - 7:42AM
ADVFN Crypto NewsWire
The government of Venezuela has reportedly started converting
pensioners’ monthly payments from the country’s fiat currency, the
bolivar, to its oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro, without giving
them a choice.
According to the Caracas Chronicles, a politics
and economics-focused website based in Venezuela, the country’s
pensioners are notified every time their monthly payments arrive,
but this time received a second notification informing them the
funds were “for the concept of Savings in Petro.”
Per the website, pensioners have started depending on government
bonuses after years of hyperinflation saw their savings become
worthless. Bloomberg’s Café Con Leche Index shows Venezuela’s
inflation rate is now close to 200,000%.
Depending on these payments saw pensioners regularly visit a
government-owned portal, paria.org.ve, which they have to use to
transfer the funds to their bank accounts. The Caracas Chronicles
claims the Venezuelan government deposited the bolivars to the
pensioners’ accounts, and then converted them to its oil-backed
cryptocurrency.
“They sent people the bolivars, and then, from their accounts,
they exchanged them to petros.”
Notably, Venezuela has been pushing for the Petro’s adoption for
months now. As CCN covered, the government has ordered local banks to adopt the
cryptocurrency, and made it an official alternate currency in the
country.
The country is set to present its oil-backed cryptocurrency as a unit of account
for oil to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC), and has offered India a 30% discount on oil if the country
paid in the cryptocurrency.
In April of this year, the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro noted
in the country’s Cuatro F newspaper it “may” start charging for exports in Petros.
Later on, Maduro launched a Petro savings plan
that allows the country’s citizens to “save by means of
certificate” through the cryptocurrency.
Currently, it’s unclear how the pensioners will be able to use
their Petros, as for citizens it has seemingly only been announced
that passport fees are to be paid with
them. Per the Caracas Chronicles, it’s possible for citizens to
convert their cryptocurrency back to bolivars through the
government’s portal, but it isn’t easy.
On the popular microblogging platform Twitter, Nicolas Maduro
shared a link to an 8-step guide on how to do it.
As for investors who actually bought the Petro, they’ll seemingly
only be able to trade it for other cryptocurrencies if
they bought it this year.
Source:
CCN
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