Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, said the country's proposed pre-sale of cryptocurrency – the "petro" – will be launched next month.

By signing Petro's white paper on Tuesday, Maduro said the initial sale of the token will begin Feb. 20. President Maduro also revealed that plans are being developed to use petroleum – which is backed by product reserves, including oil – with a national identity card held by millions of people. Venezuelans, according to a Bloomberg report.

Maduro also announced that mining centers are being set up in educational institutions to produce the token. This was revised from an initial draft that the petro was to be pre-mined before launch.

Maduro said on state television, according to Bloomberg:

"The petroleum industry will have a big impact on how we access foreign currency for the country and how we get the goods and services we need around the world."

The controversial token was announced in December of last year, with the stated goal of bypassing financial penalties.

The country's opposition congress said shortly after Petro was "illegal" and that it would actually borrow against the country's oil reserves. As such, the movement would violate laws that state that the legislature must approve government borrowing.

"This is not a cryptocurrency, it is a Venezuelan oil futures sale," said legislator Jorge Millan at the time, the "caller" tailor-made for Corruption."

In addition, on January 22, US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez denounced Venezuela's planned cryptocurrency in an open letter to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The two senators wanted to know how the department was going to act to prevent the country from using oil to circumvent the sanctions of the United States.

They wrote:

"It is imperative that the US Treasury Department be equipped with tools and enforcement mechanisms to combat the use of cryptocurrency to escape American sanctions in general, and in this case in particular. "

Image from Nicolas Maduro via Shutterstock

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