
Venezuela Forcibly Converts Pensions into Petro - doener
https://bitcoinerx.com/altcoin/venezuela-forcibly-converts-pensions-into-petro/
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pjc50
Does anyone have a mainstream news link to this? I don't trust coin-related
news sites not to be involved in hyping things.

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celticninja
I cant find one, the Fiancial Times have covered Venezuela and petro in the
past and they have no mention of it. Looks like BS to me based on one line in
what appears to be a financial statement/email.

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jsty
They've reported on the switch to the 'new Bolivar' [1], which has an official
conversion to the Petro. So the Venezuelan government might well just now be
switching to issuing new Bolivars, and reporting their value in Petros (I
can't say why this would make any particular sense, except perhaps to make the
distinction from old Bolivars clear).

[1]
[https://www.ft.com/content/7e19a908-a48c-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff...](https://www.ft.com/content/7e19a908-a48c-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff35b)

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v768
Living in Venezuela: After more than a year of official announcements about
the petro, nobody knows what it is, nobody has ever bought, sold, owned nor
seen one. Some people have sent other crypto to some sort of pre-sale, but
never got anything back. I don't know what is the petro, but it hardly exists
and it is certainly not a cryptocurrency.

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buboard
Is petro in exchanges outside VZ? This just seems like a move to put the blame
for the inevitable crash of this fiat cryptocurrency to "the bad bitcoin
market".

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jetrink
It was Maduro who launched the currency and if it fails, it will be his
failure. More likely, they are trying to recreate the URV[1] that Brazil used
to get inflation under control.

1\.
[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-
fake-money-saved-brazil)

~~~
cesarb
But the URV was only part of the Real plan, though it was the most visible
part. There were other equally important measures, Wikipedia has a summary
([https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Real#Principais_medidas](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Real#Principais_medidas)):

    
    
      - Limiting price adjustments to once a year;
      - Privatizations;
      - Reducing government spending and increasing taxes;
      - Reducing import taxes and making imports easier;
      - Interventions in the exchange rate;
      - Increasing the central bank interest rate.

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anoncoward111
In a world where you work your whole life in exchange for promised lifetime
income and all you get is Venezuelan Crypto Kitties

~~~
talltimtom
A government backed crypto currency is essentially just a different type of
digital currency. If petro is more stable than bolivar, i would think people
would prefer it, as long as conversions are simple.

~~~
AstralStorm
Conversion rates precisely controlled by the government?

I think some people have great (and not fond) memories of that in Poland since
50s till 1993... Only the final phase worked somewhat.

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stale2002
Wow, I don't think this was the cyberpunk crypto distopia that anyone
predicted.

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mromanuk
A crypto news site, talking against crypto.

~~~
buboard
Centralized crypto is no different from any kind of fiat. Obviously the
website is not about fiats.

~~~
anc84
I am pretty sure a crypto news website is all about generating real money from
nothing.

~~~
buboard
like all investing websites

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shaki-dora
This is going to be fun! From what I can pick up as (sometimes less than)
subtle signalling from the crypto crowd, they tend towards a worldview
somewhere between libertarian and alt-right on the spectrum, and Venezuela
occupies that sweet spot of placing itself squarely opposite, and being
terrible at, well, _everything_.

Matt Levine has sporadically covered this particularly folly, and it's well
worth it:
[https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=matt+le...](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=matt+levine+venezuela)
(spoiler alert: he reveals everything up and including next year's season
finale " _Nope, that didn 't work. Why did we ever think it would? Now, what
shall we do about that Brazilian army trying to 'liberate' us?_")

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lustysocietyorg
This spiteful article is probably part of the US war campaign against
Venezuela.

Leftist Debunks John Oliver's Venezuela Episode
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fV-C1Ag5sI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fV-C1Ag5sI)

A Brief History of U.S. Dirty Wars in Central America That Set the Stage for
the Refugee Crisis
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBJpykHbbYI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBJpykHbbYI)

US Senator Rubio pushes for Venezuela to be placed on US state terrorism
sponsors list – report [https://www.rt.com/usa/444420-us-venezuela-terror-
sponsor/](https://www.rt.com/usa/444420-us-venezuela-terror-sponsor/)

‘Bolton is preparing plan for my assassination, with help from Bogota’ –
Venezuela’s Maduro [https://www.rt.com/news/446316-maduro-assassination-
bolton-v...](https://www.rt.com/news/446316-maduro-assassination-bolton-
venezuela-us/)

Besides US agents are involved in the media secretly and openly (CNN, Fox
News,... promoting the conspiracy and lie that should justify the publically
well known war e.g. Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria).

What western media company is outraged regarding the situation of journalist
Julian Assange ?

The Guardian/Politico Psyop Against WikiLeaks
[https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/01/the-guardian-
politico-...](https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/01/the-guardian-politico-
psyop-against-wikileaks/)

Besides: This comment might be my last comment on HN because I can not create
replies because I am posting too fast according to HN.

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geezerjay
> This article is probably part of the US war campaign against Venezuela.

What is that even supposed to mean?

Besides the tin-foily nature of the baseless assertion, not to mention the
hefty dose of weasel words, has the Maduro regime forced the conversion or
not?

