The Central Bank of Venezuela Developed an App for the Petro-backed Bolivar

August 28, 2018

3 min read

The Central Bank of Venezuela has developed an Android app which can be used by its citizens to calculate how many petro- tethered bolivars they have in their possession.

As Venezuela’s hyperinflation reaches staggering limits, the government seems to be riding all of its resources on its petro cryptocurrency.

Earlier in August a new exchange rate for the Bolivar was announced by President Maduro, stating that from now on it will be pegged to the value of Petro. Maduro explained that one Petro was equivalent to $60 U.S. Dollars and had a value of 360 million bolivars, which signifies a devaluation of 96% in the state currency.

The petro-backed currency is known as the ‘sovereign bolivar.’ The president recently revealed that this new currency and a number of other economic initiatives were part of a tactic which would aid the country in its economic recovery.

But there are many voices that believe the petro and the new sovereign bolivar are nothing but distractions meant to keep people believing that something is being done.

But even with this kind of disapproval from the public, the Venezuelan government continues to trudge on with its controversial cryptocurrency and keeps on promoting it. Venezuela’s Central Bank developed an application for Android users which will help them “understand and assimilate the monetary re-denomination process.”

Sovereign Calculator, as the app is called, was presented as a “tool for everyone.” by Venezuela’s Central Bank.

Seeing as the bolivar’s newest denomination just eliminates five zeros from its previous price, the app has to perform calculations that are rather simple. But curiously enough, the app has been downloaded thousands of times and received a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 from a total of 241 reviews.

The opinions regarding the app are divided, with some praising its design and use, and others deeming it to be pointless.

Comunicacion Digital VE, the app’s developer, has created in the past a number of other software programs which were used to support the current government.

Even with the new sovereign bolivar, Venezuela’s economic situation is still in dire straits, and many experts are of the opinion that these economic implementations will just only deepen the country’s issues.