There’s a ton of good news/bad news jokes, along these lines: “Good news – I borrowed your Lambo… and the airbags work.”
Another: Doctor to Patient – “I have bad news, you only have 24 hours to live. Even worse news – I meant to tell you yesterday.”
Now we have our very own crypto good news/bad news joke in the form of: “Good news, the world’s first official state-sponsored cryptocurrency has been running since February 2018. Bad news, it’s the Venezuelan petro.”
Oh, hang on, that’s not a joke, it’s actually true.
With hyperinflation rampant in the country, it was clear that something had to be done by the Venezuelan government. The International Monetary Fund reports Venezuela’s economy shrinking by some 18% this year, and inflation has hit one million per cent. Half a million Venezuelans have already crossed the border with Ecuador, to escape the impossibilities of their home economy. Until the recent massive devaluation of the bolivar fiat currency there were scenes reminiscent of Weimar Germany after the First World War, when a wheelbarrow full of banknotes was needed to buy a loaf of bread.
On launch of the petro, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said it would, “Make new forms of international financing available,” and help pull the country out of its economic nosedive. The cryptocurrency – which is supposedly backed and guaranteed by national gold, diamond, and petroleum assets – can be used for almost any payment including real estate, gasoline, flights, and taxes. And now, even a loaf of bread.
It sounds almost feasible, which is the good news - or as good as it gets - so perhaps everyone in the cryptoworld should be celebrating that finally there’s a government which is not only crypto-friendly, but has actually created its own coin. However, the bad news is much more extensive. Everything about the launch was bungled, including the petro white paper which began by citing Ethereum as the platform, but by February had changed platforms to NEM. The confusion was so widespread (including different and contradictory versions of the white paper being published at the same time) that scammers easily established fake petro sites on other platforms and made a killing. Kerr-ching!
If you searched far and wide for a brilliant example of how NOT to do an ICO, you couldn’t find better than the sad story of the petro.
USA President Trump was then quick to jump on the newborn cryptocurrency, making it illegal for American citizens to invest and trade, while the highly-respected Brookings Institution reported that, “The Venezuelan Government has resorted to a deceitful means of introducing the petro... which exists to create foreign currency reserves from thin air.” Things were not looking good, and since then they have gone from bad to worse. A pity, because this could have been a success, a bad news/good news tale with a happy ending.
Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post offers the punchline to this crypto joke which isn’t a joke: “The petro might be the most obviously horrible investment ever. The petro is about creating something useless — that's why only foreigners can buy them, but only Venezuelans can spend them.”
Another: Doctor to Patient – “I have bad news, you only have 24 hours to live. Even worse news – I meant to tell you yesterday.”
Crypto's version of the old joke
Now we have our very own crypto good news/bad news joke in the form of: “Good news, the world’s first official state-sponsored cryptocurrency has been running since February 2018. Bad news, it’s the Venezuelan petro.”
Oh, hang on, that’s not a joke, it’s actually true.
With hyperinflation rampant in the country, it was clear that something had to be done by the Venezuelan government. The International Monetary Fund reports Venezuela’s economy shrinking by some 18% this year, and inflation has hit one million per cent. Half a million Venezuelans have already crossed the border with Ecuador, to escape the impossibilities of their home economy. Until the recent massive devaluation of the bolivar fiat currency there were scenes reminiscent of Weimar Germany after the First World War, when a wheelbarrow full of banknotes was needed to buy a loaf of bread.
On launch of the petro, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said it would, “Make new forms of international financing available,” and help pull the country out of its economic nosedive. The cryptocurrency – which is supposedly backed and guaranteed by national gold, diamond, and petroleum assets – can be used for almost any payment including real estate, gasoline, flights, and taxes. And now, even a loaf of bread.
It sounds almost feasible, which is the good news - or as good as it gets - so perhaps everyone in the cryptoworld should be celebrating that finally there’s a government which is not only crypto-friendly, but has actually created its own coin. However, the bad news is much more extensive. Everything about the launch was bungled, including the petro white paper which began by citing Ethereum as the platform, but by February had changed platforms to NEM. The confusion was so widespread (including different and contradictory versions of the white paper being published at the same time) that scammers easily established fake petro sites on other platforms and made a killing. Kerr-ching!
If you searched far and wide for a brilliant example of how NOT to do an ICO, you couldn’t find better than the sad story of the petro.
USA President Trump was then quick to jump on the newborn cryptocurrency, making it illegal for American citizens to invest and trade, while the highly-respected Brookings Institution reported that, “The Venezuelan Government has resorted to a deceitful means of introducing the petro... which exists to create foreign currency reserves from thin air.” Things were not looking good, and since then they have gone from bad to worse. A pity, because this could have been a success, a bad news/good news tale with a happy ending.
The punchline
Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post offers the punchline to this crypto joke which isn’t a joke: “The petro might be the most obviously horrible investment ever. The petro is about creating something useless — that's why only foreigners can buy them, but only Venezuelans can spend them.”