Our very own Chief Marketing Officer, Jai Bifulco, was selected to address the crisis in Venezuela with their unique use of blockchain technology and the introduction of their state-backed cryptocurrency that they have launched called the Petro on the popular news outlet Sky News.

The Petro, supposedly, will be backed by the country’s oil and mineral reserves and is intended to supplement Venezuela’s plummeting bolívar, as a means of circumventing U.S. sanctions and accessing international financing.

Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, announced the Petro in a televised address on 3 December 2017, stating that it would be backed by Venezuela’s reserves of oil, gasoline, gold, and diamonds.

Maduro stated that the Petro would allow Venezuela to “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty”, and that it would make “new forms of international financing” available to the country.

Opposition leaders, however, expressed doubt due to Venezuela’s economic turmoil, pointing to the falling value of the Venezuelan bolívar, its fiat currency, and $140 billion in foreign debt.

Jai Bifulco gives an interesting insight from the crypto and commodities perspectives as a specialist in the field and an expert in the stablecoin industry.