Venezuela’s Maduro to airdrop half a Petro each to public employees, retirees

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro announced Friday that public sector workers, retirees and the military would be airdropped 0.5 petro (~$30) as a holiday bonus this week. In order to receive the airdrop eligible citizens will need to sign up for PetroApp, the official government crypto wallet that launched in May of this year that also supports Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash. According to Maduro, the airdrop will be another opportunity to encourage Venezuelans to switch to the petro, which has been publicly available since October 2018. Maduro also stated that more than 500,000 petros will be paid out to support town and local governments across the country.

Why it matters:

• Venezuela has pushed its petro strongly since it launched more than a year ago, but has yet to gain meaningful adoption. With Venezuela’s national minimum wage being ~$10 a month, a ~$30 airdrop provides a strong incentive for eligible citizens to sign up and enter the petro economy.
• As far as we’re aware, Venezuela’s PetroApp is the only official government crypto wallet in the world today. With native support for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash, the Venezuelan government paradoxically seems to not only be providing an exit from their deteriorating monetary system, but also be providing explicit incentives to do so.