As of May 26, 2023, Venezuela’s national cryptocurrency, the Petro, has completely stopped working, blocking local people’s money.
During a visit to Brazil this Monday (29), Nicolás Maduro spoke to Brazil’s President Lula, but did not comment on the problems faced by the digital currency issued by his government.
It is worth remembering that Petro is the first state-owned cryptocurrency ever created, backed by Venezuelan oil.
In any case, many Venezuelans are waiting for further clarification as they have units of the currency and need to convert values into products. The crisis in Venezuela is one of the worst in the entire world, with the local currency depreciating at an accelerated pace in recent years.
Venezuela’s cryptocurrency stops working and people’s money is stuck “on the blockchain”
On May 24, 2023, part of the Venezuelan cryptocurrency community realized that the Petro network started producing blocks again after a long period of inactivity.
The hope for some was to withdraw values from the network, under pressure since the Maduro government launched a witch hunt against Sunacrip.
However, a day later, on May 25, the Petro cryptocurrency network experienced problems again and stopped working again. With the situation, Venezuelans who hold money in cryptocurrency can no longer withdraw or move values.
“BREAKING: With the same sense of responsibility that we reported yesterday that Petro Blockchain (PTR) had restarted the production process of new blocks, today we regret to confirm that said Blockchain has been discontinued again, i.e. operations are currently being halted. Only 4 blocks were produced in the specified time period. The latter without sufficient confirmations to validate the operations contained therein. We await further clarification from the authorities.”
BREAKING: With the same sense of responsibility, we inform you that the Cadena de Bloques (Blockchain) del Petro (#PTR) had restarted the process of producing new blocks, today we unfortunately have to confirm that Blockchain has stopped again,… pic.twitter.com/jEd2NqK3O7
— CryptoLand.Vzla (@CryptolandV) May 28, 2023
It is worth remembering that the cryptocurrency is controlled by the government of Venezuela, which has not commented on the matter.
Block Explorer no longer displays information
In addition to the cryptocurrency network being paused by Nicolas Maduro’s government, the live coins discovered that Petro’s block explorer stopped working as well. That is, the local population can no longer see basic network information, which shows that the problems are serious.
It is worth remembering that with the end of Sunacrip in recent months, the Venezuelan population has lost support for the PetroApp application. That is, there is no one to turn to with the interruption of services imposed by the local government, and the money of those who have Petro is still stuck.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
