The Petro, short for petromoneda, is a new attempt from the Venezuelan government to boost the country's struggling economy using cryptocurrency, and U.S. President Donald Trump just signed an executive order to ban its use in the United States.The cryptocurrency was launched in February 2018 but was announced back in December. Its controversy sparks from the fact that Petro is backed by Venezuelan oil and mineral reserves and is intended as a supplement to Venezuela's money, the bolívar fuerte, in order to avoid U.S. sanctions while doing international financing. "All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order."This executive order was put in place after Venezuelan President Nic...
