It appears that the Venezuelan government is very desperate, to the point of launching its very own shitcoin — petro — nationally on November. Things have gotten so bad in Venezuela that the government has thrown everything in its reach to rein in the hyperinflation. But so far, it has had the opposite effect. Even the International Monetary Fund corroborates this fact by projecting Venezuela’s inflation rate to 1,000,000 percent by years end. By now a cup of coffee in Venezuela might cost you more than 2,000,000 Bolivars.

Maduro contemplating the names of the authors of the petro’s white paper

After Maduro lit fire to everything sensible, he’s now on television, begging people to buy petro. From the television screen, he says, this is the greatest shitcoin ever created. Some might call it a supershitcoin, and it’s centralized — the crowd roars. In other words, they control the ledger. Which means with their outstanding track record, they can do what they want with all the petros in circulation. They can steal them from wallets, block transactions, and do many other shady feats.

Maduro now trying to memorize the authors’ names

Personally, this wasn’t the type of adoption I had in mind, and only time will tell on how their little experiment will work out. It doesn’t look too hopeful.