Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Trade and International Investment José Vielma Mora announced Thursday, February 8 foreign investors would accept payments for their investments. The petro, a state-of-the-art oil cryptocurrency that should be released in both a pre-sale and an initial offer of coins (ICO), was the first announced by the president Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro in December 2017. The petroleum white paper published Jan. 30 explains that the idea of ​​the petrol came from Hugo Chavez, who had envisioned a "strong currency backed by commodities".

Mora said that Brazilian businessmen are ready to invest $ 300 million in Venezuela, starting with a $ 100 million reversal investment.

The Minister also listed Poland, Denmark, Honduras, Norway and Viet Nam. nam as foreign countries that would be willing to receive petro in exchange for food and medicine, citing a total amount of $ 435 million. According to Mora, Canada has also expressed interest in investing in Venezuela in the area of ​​"pharmaceuticals for humans and animals".

The petro is an ERC20 token that has been pre-extracted on the Ethereum block chain. Petro is backed by a barrel of oil. Maduro had ordered the issuance of 100 mln at Petro on January 14 in preparation for the pre-sale.

The creation of the petro was viewed with skepticism by critics and members of the Venezuelan opposition parliament who consider petro a fraudulent currency that could help Maduro to avoid sanctions.

The petrol pre-sale will take place from February 20 at -04: 00 UTC to March 19 at -04: 00 UTC, and there will be 38.4 mln chips available. The pre-sale tokens "may be exchanged for petro [coins] at any time between the launch date and the closing of the initial bid," according to the white paper.

The OIC will take place one day after end of the pre-sale, March 20 at -04: 00 GMT, with 44 mln of oil available for sale at a reference point of sale of $ 60 – the price of a barrel of oil in Venezuela in the second week of January 2018. According to the white paper, the price is subject to market fluctuations

The white paper writes that the Venezuelan government will accept Petro as payment for national taxes, taxes and utilities, and it will be regulated by the government. The Superintendence of Cryptocurrency and the National Blockchain Observatory.