After what seems like an unnecessarily long bout of teasing, we can finally get our hands on all those lovely Venezuelan Petro.
As Bitcoinist reported earlier this month, the Petro has been finally launched by the Venezuela government. Today, the Vice-President of the Economy announced the release on Twitter with this lovely infographic.
https://twitter.com/ViceEconomia/status/1056930786379739137
Vice-President of What?
Well the tweet says that it is from the official account of the Vice-President of the Economic Sector of Venezuela. Oh, but it doesn’t have one of those blue ticks! Are they important? Hang on, there’s a link to the Vice-President’s personal Twitter… @TareckPSUV. He’s got one of those blue ticks, so it must all be fine.
Although, if you Google his name, Tareck El Aissami, you find that Wikipedia says he is Minister of Industries and National Production. But nobody trusts Wikipedia, right? And I’m sure those allegations of corruption, money laundering, and drug trafficking, were just someone having a lark.
Two Ways to Buy The Petro
So, Google Translate at the ready, let’s decode that infographic…
Apparently, there are two options to buy the Petro, through the National Treasury of Cryptocurrency, or through an Exchange. Wait, it seems all the exchanges are linked to Sunacrip. There’s a big Sunacrip logo on the infographic, so let’s see what that is…
Hmmm… National Superintendent of Cryptocurrency. So you can either buy it through the Venezuelan government or a Venezuelan government-linked exchange?
Well that sets my mind at rest. Surely my investment will be safe if it’s being overseen by a national government either way?
Both buying options follow essentially the same five steps, so let’s see what we need to do for our Petro:
Register with Treasury or exchange… Receive validation… Make payment… Payment confirmation… Petro sent to wallet…. This is as easy as falling off a bike!
No wait, the infographic has symbols for dollars, yuan, and euros, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether, but the website just mentions Bitcoin and Litecoin. M’eh, surely an oversight.
What? The PetroApp is down for maintenance! But look, there’s a block explorer for Petro, right there on the website (showing over 300 blocks already mined). And I can always just use my wallet for now.
Damn You, Apple!
Sadly, though the Petro wallet claims to be available for “most common operative (sic) systems”, that doesn’t include OS X. I guess they’re technically right though. Of the three common (if you include Linux) operating systems, you can get a wallet for most (two) of them.
And sadly (according to the infographic), the PetroApp (when it works) is only available for Android phones. Gah! Apple are such fuddy-duddies when it comes to risk-taking.
But that’s me, unfortunately. If you can’t think of a convincing reason not to buy into Petro, then you might want to try harder.
One last thing, however. US citizens have been banned by President Trump from buying the Petro.
Is the Petro a cryptocurrency? Share your thoughts below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock