Is The Petro Real?

Coindesk is under fire again. This time it is for publishing fake news articles on Venezuela’s Petro cryptocurrency. The reality on the ground in Venezuela differs greatly from the news reported by Coindesk. Most Cryptocurrency news websites, in order to get more views, try to publish articles that are exciting to read but not necessarily honest. In this article, we point out the differences between what was reported on Venezuela and the reality on the ground.

Coindesk Article on Venezuela

The Coindesk article mentioned that the Venezuelan president was launching a youth bank to be funded by their own cryptocurrency “Petro“. It went on to state that the Petro cryptocurrency was launched in February 2018 and was backed by oil. Below is the quote from the magazine.

“Venezuela is launching a youth bank to be funded by the state’s controversial petro cryptocurrency. Announced Thursday by the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, the country will set up a bank for students and young people that will begin its operations with 20 million petros, according to news source Telesur.”

Maximo Exposing Fake News

Maximo, a Venezuelan resident, was on Adam Meister’s Youtube show to explain what was actually going on in the country. He mentioned that all the articles that get published by Coindesk / Cointelegraph were not true reflections of happenings in Venezuela. Maximo clarified that President Nicolas Maduro, in his press conference, did promise to give $1.2 billion in Petro to start a new bank for young people. He added that it was just a quote from the president.

In reality, decisions are yet to be made regarding the launch of such a youth bank in the country. He also warned people to be careful with the articles that are published by Coindesk and Cointelegraph, since they are often far from the truth and are focused on getting more views. According to him, the media did not do the research to find out the truth, but just quoted what the government or president mentioned in a press conference.

The Reality In Venezuela

Maximo explained the reality on the ground in Venezuela, in spite of the danger of him being harassed by the authorities for exposing the truth. He mentioned on the show that the government was restricting citizens from having a free market. The latest out there is that no one can bring in Bitcoin miners or mining rigs unless the importer is an official working for the government.

Adam Meister further questioned Maximo on the existence of the Petro Currency. Maximo replied that the Petro was launched on the NEM blockchain and not the Ethereum blockchain. There was also no evidence that the government is selling nor had he found anyone using it.

Does Petro Really Exist?

Another interesting part of the Petro issue is that a few months back, when Maximo appeared on Adam Meister’s show, he explained that the registration website for claiming Petro for Bolivar was having some Javascript issues. The issues are yet to be rectified as of now. The government has not yet fixed the errors even several months after launching Petro. There is a huge disconnect between reality and what is being reported to readers.

Zack Voell, one of the panelists on the show, also mentioned he noticed that the Petro had not yet moved from the initial addresses and wondered if it was being used as a medium of exchange. Maximo clarified this too. According to him, there might be only two or three transactions that might have happened so far. He also refuted president Maduro’s claim that he had sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Petro to the people. There are no transactions backing the claim. So, in short, we can say that Petro doesn’t even exist in reality. Coindesk, however, keeps writing articles about it to lure more readers.

The above revelation is evidence that the mainstream media in crypto make use of the hype surrounding the crypto community to make quick bucks but fail to report the truth. This is generally bad for the entire crypto community.

Below is the video in which Maximo talks about the situation in Venezuela.