Housing the Homeless: Venezuela Set to Build Homes with Petro Cryptocurrency
Despite initial criticisms that threatened to fire down Venezuelan President Maduro’s oil-backed crypto initiative, the Petro appears to be waxing stronger with each passing day. Now, the state’s authorities are set to build homes for the homeless with the altcoin funds.
The Maduro Dream
According to a Venezuelan news source, Telesur, the South American nation is looking to finance a mega housing project. Tagged the Great Housing Mission Venezuela (GMVV), the housing initiative is aimed at establishing decent homes for citizens who have nowhere to live. Per the report, the Minister of Habitat and Housing, lldemaro Villarroel, has revealed that the housing project will be funded with the nation’s oil-backed coin, the Petro, and 75 billion bolÃvares.
The minister has hinted that 33 local firms have started working through processes of technical validation, logistical operations, and financial capacity to carry out housing construction projects with the Petro. Plans are in motion to start the project in the second quarter of the year. Villarroel explained that, “in this second quarter the GMVV will have an injection of financial resources, which this year will be protected and established with the Petro.”
Petro May not be a Fraudulent Scheme After All
Whether it is acknowledged or not, the Petro is the first state-backed cryptocurrency in history. However, the coin’s journey to success has been anything but smooth. Shortly after conducting a hugely successful initial coin offering (ICO) pre-sale that raised a whopping $735 million within the first twenty four hours, Venezuelan lawmakers and politicians, led by the chairman of the economic finance commission, Rafael Guzman, declared the Petro project illegal and unconstitutional.
The project was labeled a vehicle for fraud and embezzlement formulated by Maduro and his team. “This deepens the crisis that we are living in. The PTR is another [example] of corruption, and we will come out of this crisis with measures that we have announced from this Parliament,” Guzman stated.
Fast forward to May 2018, Venezuelan authorities announced  a proposed use case for the oil-backed coin, in the form of a Petro funded Youth Bank that would support ‘productive initiatives’. Back then, President Maduro made it clear that $1.2 billion worth of Petros will be approved for the project.
The country’s challenges may not have been entirely conquered by the Petro coin just yet; it is, however, quite impressive to see that Maduro and his team are hard at work trying to make the cryptocurrency function.
