The tyrannical Nicolas Maduro and assorted party members enjoying the rarified air atop the Andes summit of totalitarianism and overlooking the disjointed legions of human suffering and strife of a once proud and prosperous people, must now realize that the vast sum of accumulated wrongs, do not equate to an honorary right?
Of course they don’t, as the overseers of a diabolical and exploitative working model of socialism, serve cake and punch at their annual attempts to facilitate a feasible think tank, which instead quickly degrades to an ineffectual jolly gathering highlighted by unintelligible nonsense.
With the inflation rate of the Maduro regime at a workable 32,714% and the educated and skilled upper middle class of Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and STEM professionals combing the countryside for sustenance in a fruitless attempt to avoid starvation, the government is now investing in the wild west frontier marketplace of the decentralized bitcoin market, reports the Express, and the nuances and volatility of the complex blockchain is completely lost on party members.
The government plan is simple, decree the cryptocurrency of the Petro (cute reference to the oil producing capacity of the nation) as an official monetary unit next to the Bolivar, and hope and pray for mining efforts to provide valuation, while citizens continue to endure a horrific standard of life.
Cryptocurrencies gain worth through user transactions verified by powerful computers outfitted with suped-up processors and video cards. The extraction of a single block in the blockchain, which equates to 12.5 bitcoins, is completed roughly every ten minutes, with the entire block awarded to the miner whose machine or machines correctly solves the initial encrypted string of 64 characters, or hash. Each completed block contains a ledger of 2020 verified bitcoin transactions between users, and the math gets crazy with the shear amount of electronic computations required in the trial and error process of correctly identifying a single hash.
It works like this- person A decides to buy a car from person B for one Bitcoin. A hash is generated from person A in requesting the transfer of the bitcoin to person B. Once person B receives the bitcoin another hash is generated. Finally, a hash is generated to verify that the transaction is not a duplicate. In order to successfully add the three hashes to the block, the machine of the miner will go through billions of possibilities to identify the encrypted transactions.
Thus, the intensive process requires an abundance of electricity, as with each subsequent block, the difficulty in deciphering the initial hash, as well as correctly verifying each encrypted transaction becomes exceedingly difficult, and thus industrial grade computer processing speed is needed in successfully building the blockchain.
Maduro and cronies face the reality of fierce competition, as other established cryptocurrencies dominate the mining efforts and Bitcoin marketplace, as well as the need for a reliable power source, which in the third world milieu of the unstable country, may not be possible. The other daunting aspect of electronic monetary units, is the speculative valuation. While traditional currencies are backed by the commodity of gold, cyber currencies rely on the brute force of mining efforts and the overall amount of verified transactions in gaining value. Even with the wildly popular bitcoin, a mainstream joint venture has yet to be undertaken with the retail giants, and the reality is at least a decade away from the likes of Walmart or Starbucks offering a Bitcoin interface at the checkout counter.
The truly disturbing aspect to this narrative is not that the legitimate commercial enterprise in giving the Venezuelan economy a possible boost, but the less than savory elements of society attracted by the furtive properties of cryptocurrencies. As the electronic money is decentralized and does not follow any regulations, the platform is an opportune destination for criminal organizations and individuals committing illegal acts to freely participate in commerce without the threat of being traced by authorities. In sharing a border with Colombia, Maduro may in effect be profiting personally by allowing the Cartel to wash and convert funds through the Petro blockhain. A truly win-win situation for a ruthless dictator and a prominent and dangerous criminal syndicate, and a disaster for the rest of the western hemisphere.
As Venezuelans continue to live a nightmarish existence, at least those in power can sleep at night as a revenue channel is established with one of the most ruthless and ominous organizations on the globe.
Read the Express story here.