Venezuela Seeks Miners for the Petro - Maduro Claims 860,811 Already Signed Up

Venezuela is looking for miners for the country’s national cryptocurrency, the Petro. The government has opened up a registry for miners to sign up to mine and gain access to the new currency. According to Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, 860,811 young people have already registered to create the Petro mining farms.

Also read: Venezuela Unveils Mining, Trading, and Launch Details of National Cryptocurrency

Venezuelan Miners Wanted

Venezuela has opened up the Registry of Cryptocurrency Miners for anyone with national identification to sign up to mine the country’s cryptocurrency, the Petro. The portal, launched by the Superintendence of Cryptocurrencies and Related Activities, will remain open until January 21.

Registration “is an essential requirement for natural and legal persons to have access to Petro,” reported El Impulso. Additionally, the Minister of Communication and Information, Jorge Rodriguez, indicated that the registered may have access to other digital currencies that are authorized by the government. He was recently quoted by Panorama saying:

Natural or legal persons registered in the Registry will be able to acquire other types of cryptocurrencies for free use and demand in Venezuela, as long as they are authorized.

Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro first announced the creation of the Petro back in December, as news.Bitcoin.com reported. He then created the Superintendency of cryptocurrencies as well as the Blockchain Observatory to oversee the launch and operation of the Petro. Recently, he backed the Petro with 5 billion barrels of oil reserves and released mining, trading, and launch details of the new currency.

Based on the latest data provided by the Ministry of Petroleum, “The basis for calculating the value of the Petro will be the price of a barrel of crude, which currently stands at an average of 57 dollars,” the news outlet noted.

860,000+ Have Signed Up

Since the announcement of the Petro, Maduro claims to have been recruiting young people across his country to develop mining farms for the Petro. He was quoted by El Universal:

We are going to call them a special cryptocurrency team…[They will] set up cryptocurrency mining farms in all states and municipalities of the country.

According to the president, a total of 860,811 young people have already signed up to take part in the mining farm project, 300,000 of which have already begun working on it as part of the country’s Chamba Juvenil program. For this project, computers will be interconnected by a mining software, Maduro elaborated.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s private business sector has some reservations about the Petro. El Impulse quoted them asserting:

The cryptocurrency market in the world is not managed by governments, and its credibility and success are based on trust, something that does not exist in Venezuela.

Do you think Venezuela will be mining real cryptocurrency? What do you think of the Petro? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of the Venezuelan government and Reuters.

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