Venezuelan Government Promises Half Petro To 8M People: Is This Legit?

The president of Venezuela is in the altcoin news today for making a bold statement where he promised half a Petro for each resident. As the Venezuelan government promises this much for its 8 million workers and retirees as a Christmas bonus, no one knows whether to believe the news or not.

With a total of 4,500,000 retirees as well as 3,500,000 public workers, Maduro said that he expects to deliver half a Petro to the total of 8,000,000 Venezuelans. He held a speech on December 15, following up on the remarks that he made in mid-November.

With a fixed value of $60 which was established by the Venezuelan government, the average Petro bonus which each resident will receive will be equivalent to $30. On a large scale, this is a major cost for the government and it is estimated that they will give approximately $240 million in “Christmas Petro bonuses” according to the valuation given to the state cryptocurrency.

Maduro also decreed this week and said that the government will initiate a “new stage of economic and social protection” within the economy, mostly referring to the delivery of half a Petro to Venezuelan workers and retirees.

The president also noted that the Venezuelan government promises more in the future. He expressed in a direct way that they all “have been building the Petro (…) for almost 2 years” and added that “the first thing he did with the Petro was to place 5 billion barrels of oil as support.” Then, he noted that they are already producing those barrels of oil in order to have them ready “only for Petro.”

However, Maduro also mentioned that they already have “30 million barrels of oil” which are part of “the direct physical material wealth that sustains the Petro for whoever wants to claim it”.

The head of the Venezuelan government also specified that he has already signed agreements with “50,000 merchants in the country” in order to accept Petro as a form of payment within their establishments. Even though this was not confirmed by anyone besides him, it is highly probable to be true.

Given the history of not delivering on promises, the Venezuelan government is not the most trusted authority out there. This is why we advise our readers to approach news with a dose of skepticism.