17:46, 22-Feb-2018
Venezuela New Digital Currency: Petro gold is launching next week, backed by precious metals
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Meanwhile, Venezuela's government is preparing another kind of cryptocurrency, the petro gold, a day after it launched the country's first oil-backed token. President Maduro said on Wednesday that the new Petro Gold is supported by precious metals, and will be released next week.
It is also part of the country's efforts to break away from the effects of financial sanctions from the US. The Venezuelan government raised 735 million US dollars on Tuesday from the pre-sale of petro cryptocurrency. The US Treasury already warned that Venezuelan cryptocurrencies could violate sanctions and thus create legal risk for US investors.
Maduro didn't reveal further details as to where to get enough gold to back the new currency. Blockchain experts have criticized Venezuela's cryptocurrency efforts. They say though digital tokens are valuable as they can keep track of transactions to boost transparency and rule out corruption, Venezuela's tokens are not working that way.