There are countries that are still hesitant to use cryptos. In fact, the EU Parliament released a paper that says countries are making a mistake if they try to ban cryptos.
But for Venezuela, the country has been committed to using cryptocurrencies. It has been used as a method to trade with other countries despite the existing trade ban on the country. Venezuela is a perfect place to start a blockchain project. For one, the country has been suffering from hyperinflation. With this in mind, Venezuela plans to make use of its resources in order to bring the necessary aid to their ailing economy.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Petro is a token that is backed by Venezuela’s oil. And now, Venezuela is using Petro in order to fund homes for the homeless.
The Venezuelan Minister of Habitat and Hosing Ildemaro Villaroel announced the government’s plan to build affordable housing for the homeless making use of Petro. This is a project that has been dubbed as “Great Mission for Venezuela Housing (GMVV)”. To date, despite economic problems, Maduro’s Venezuela has been able to carry out the socialist ideals of its predecessor Hugo Chavez by bringing 2 million houses to date.
According to Villaroel, there are already 33 companies that started the project. These companies are involved in technical, financial, and logistic testing.
He said that “Together with the governors, we are reviewing the plans that we will begin in the second quarter, in this second quarter GMVV will have an injection of financial resources, which this year will be protected and established with the Petro”.
Why Petro?
So why use the Petro? It is somewhat a strategy that allows the house construction to have a “protective field” considering the hyperinflation and how fast the bolivar is losing its value. According to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the new homes will be funded by 909,000 Petros or approximately 74 billion bolivars.
This isn’t exactly the first project that was funded by Petro. Venezuela also had a Petro-funded crypto bank that supports both the youth and student initiatives.
Economic Problem
Venezuela has been dealing with both political and economic crisis. It has worsened in recent years spiking inflation by 25,000%. In fact, because of this, there is a boom in the crypto market. There are those that are now resorting to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. There are those that are taking advantage of the cheap electricity provided by the government in order to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Though this method brings dollars to the country, the government has attempted to stop miners from getting access to gear since a lot of people are no longer using the bolivar.
To give you an idea just how much Venezuelans love their cryptocurrency, Bitcoin trading significantly jumped this year in the country. The volume of Venezuelan bolivar in Bitcoin exchanges between March to April 2018 jumped by 138%. And the crazier thing is that it has jumped by 39% from April to May even.
Venezuela is now becoming a hub for cryptocurrencies. Considering the bad economy, we can expect more Venezuelans to stick to cryptos rather than use their own money.
