Thread by @Codiox

Here's an update on what's happening right now in Venezuela with the Petro cryptocurrency ($PTR).

But first some background: some years ago the Venezuelan dictatorship launched a new (illegal) ID card. The "Fatherland's card". The aim was to send subsidies to the people.

Nobody paid attention to this government initiative... until the dictatorship threatened to take many things away from people who didn't get the card (like food and fuel). The majority of the population then signed up for it. ID holders routinely get worthless fiat "airdrops".

Enter The Petro, our glorious socialist leaders decided to give Petro addresses to everybody who is signed up in the 'patria.org.ve' platform. That's the website where people can check all things related to the ID card and get the fiat airdrops.

The website has a built-in Petro Exchange. The dictatorship decided to airdrop 0.5 PTR to everybody with a wallet. It was a "gift" for people to go out and spend it. There is a caveat though, only selected merchants had the new point of sale system linked with the Petro platform.

The merchants are forced to accept the Petro as payment at a fixed rate. (2.5 Million VES/PTR), whereas you can buy the token in the open market for as low as 1 Million VES/PTR.

In other words, you can get a 50% profit by buying cheap Petro and spend it at the merchants.

The orderbooks in exchanges that trade Petro are full in the sell-side and empty in the buy-side. So, what happens when people get a subsidy in the form of a shitcoin in a depressed economy, and merchants are forced to accept the worthless token?

People will likely buy PTR to spend it, driving the price up until there's equilibrium. Meanwhile, merchants will go out of stock (and business) selling goods for 50% less of what they are worth. Long queues of people have been popping up to spend the damn thing.

High ranking goverment officials will take the opportunity to offload their Petro holdings. Not to mention the incredible money laundering operation they have going on with this thing.

That's it for today. Here are some useful links to learn more:

Carnet de la Patria: caracaschronicles.com/2017/02/02/602…
caracaschronicles.com/2018/11/15/reu…
How Venezuelans exchange Bolivars into Dollars:
caracaschronicles.com/2019/12/06/cuc…