Bitcoin and Venezuela
Venezuelans are not newcomers to
The Petro could theoretically help
cryptocurrencies. The country has
President Maduro get around
one of the highest concentrations
current and future sanctions
of Bitcoin miners in the world
because it provides an alternative
thanks to electricity subsidies that
path for sending money. This
render the power-crunching
doesn’t mean global oil and
practice widely affordable. Yet
commodity contracts will be
electricity is perhaps one of the few
based on the Petro anytime soon,
things Venezuelans are able to
but President Maduro’s desire to
afford in a country grappling with
avoid dollar transactions is
widespread food and medicine
certainly shared by other
shortages. convertibility laws that would
Venezuelans are living though the either prohibit the transfer or set a China.
conversion rate that would
worst hyperinflation since post-
WWI Germany. A third of all
Venezuelans reported an average
of 8kg in weight loss this year due
to rising food prices. The
International Monetary Fund
further estimates 2018’s inflation
rate will reach