Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro has announced the pre-sale of his country's national oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro. In addition, he has presented and signed the official petro's whitepaper and unveiled the Petro Container for mining the new currency.

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Pre-Sale of Petro

During the meeting of the council of ministers on Tuesday, Maduro announced that the pre-sale of Venezuela's national cryptocurrency, the petro, will begin on February 20.

Meeting where Maduro announced the pre-sale of the petro.

"We have reached the future. Venezuela advances as an economic power," the president remarked, specifying that the petro pre-sale will be "through ERC20 tokens." He further asserted:

Venezuela is at the forefront of the world, and we are going to accelerate permanently the start-up of the cryptocurrency, the petro.

Maduro Presented Petro Whitepaper

Alongside announcing the pre-sale of the petro, Maduro also presented and signed the cryptocurrency's whitepaper which details "the functions, vision, and conditions" of the petro, he described.