By Luis Manuel Aguana
From that article written in
September of 1970 by Peter J. Denning in the ACM Computer Surveys, "Virtual Memory", that
revolutionized in 37 pages the IT industry, maybe the post of Satoshi Nakamoto
in his mailing list of cryptography would do the same to the global payment
system in May 2009 by publishing "Bitcoin:
A Peer-to-Peer Electronich Cash System" (see original in https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) in 9 pages. That is why I have always thought that it is not the quantity of what
is written but the importance of what is written. Fundamental difference ...
Nakamoto, apparently the pseudonym
of a group of experts in cryptography, invented a technology that, according to
The Economist, "could radically
alter the international financial system ... It would eliminate the need for trusted third parties
such as central banks in the transmission of money, could reduce the cost of
credit cards and other fees in transactions, and attract those who defend
privacy "(Satoshi Nakamoto, in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto).
Pero esto último –la privacidad-
claramente se perdería si alguien controla el sistema. La idea precisamente es
que el mecanismo este construido sobre la base de que nadie lo controle a fin
de que no pueda existir la emisión inorgánica de dinero, así como la identidad
de quienes transan operaciones financieras a través de ese sistema.
Esto es lo que precisamente desean
realizar algunos países como Rusia, China, Irán, India, Estonia y ahora
Venezuela, al crear las ahora llamadas “Criptomonedas Soberanas”. Efectivamente
Maduro y su régimen pretenden burlar el sistema de pagos internacional creando
una criptomoneda denominada Petro, a la que al parecer pondrán un peso
específico importante para transar lo único que exporta Venezuela: Petróleo.
From a recent interview taken from
the Eurasia Group's periodic bulletin, Signal
(https://medium.com/signal-geopolitics-made-simple/bad-algorithms-fake-money-and-pissed-off-princes-c98c37adf73b) entitled "
Bad algorithms, Fake Money, and Pissed-Off Princes ", its editor
Willis Sparks, expert in current geopolitics and US foreign policy, interview
Kevin Allison specialist in the intersection between technology and geopolitics
of the group. From there we extract some
interesting answers in relation to the Petro:
“Hey Kevin, what’s a sovereign cryptocurrency?
Good morning, Willis.
It’s digital money that uses clever computer code to let people buy things
without going through a bank or other financial intermediary. Bitcoin, the
first cryptocurrency, was created as an alternative to government-issued fiat
money. But a sovereign digital currency would be issued by the state — in the
case of the petro, a government in Venezuela that has presided over disastrous
hyperinflation.
How is a cryptocurrency different from the money in my wallet?
Your cash, known as
fiat money, is backed by a central bank, which can fire up the presses and
print more. Cryptocurrencies are backed by code, which makes their total supply
a design decision. The total number of Bitcoins that can ever be “mined” was
hard-wired into the programming from the start. Other currencies, like
Ethereum, don’t limit the number, but that could change. Governments will have
to decide whether their cryptocurrencies’ supply would be fixed or variable.
Why would a government want a sovereign cryptocurrency?
To revolutionize
commerce and governance by creating a decentralized, tamper-proof method of
registering changes in — OK, just kidding. Venezuela’s government probably just
wants to raise cash, evade sanctions, and counter US influence. By cutting out
financial middlemen like banks, cryptocurrencies exist outside the global
payments system, which runs on the US dollar. While some countries are eyeing other benefits, there’s a reason why it’s Venezuela,
Russia, and Iran that are most aggressively investigating sovereign
cryptocurrencies.
Why would I want to buy a sovereign cryptocurrency?
You’re right to
wonder. Is the cryptocurrency secure?
Is it easily convertible into cash? Would transactions be anonymous, or would
they be tracked? These are open questions.
Should I care about this?
It will create
financial opportunities that might not be available today in countries with
underdeveloped banking systems. We should all care about that. On the flip side, national
cryptocurrencies might also make it easier for governments to track what you
buy and sell. That should worry anyone who cares about privacy.”(highlighted our).
The creation
of a digital currency involves a system of trust in the code that is scattered
on thousands of computers around the world that deal with carrying the
reliability of the transaction you are making. It is not backed, as Allison
rightly points out, by a Central Bank like the money we have in the bank. It is
clear that unlike Bitcoin and the other current cryptocurrencies, this new
sovereign cryptocurrency would break with the decentralized control scheme that
seeks precisely to escape those who have shown to have violated the value of
money for all.
Already for
that fact alone, why would anyone outside would want to buy or trade with
Petros or any sovereign currency? The scheme has already indicated that payments
for crude oil shipments would be traded in Petros. This means that buyers
should go online to look for Petros to pay the Venezuelan government for crude
oil. But would the suppliers of goods and services required in Venezuela be
willing to receive Petros for their goods? Will it be
easily convertible to dollars for them?
The regime
would have to create the day before yesterday a system of international trust
such that the world's suppliers would be willing to risk trading their dollars
for Petros just to provide this country whose credibility is in the ground only
because some advisers told Maduro that this was the solution to the financial
disaster we are in. And that trust is not overnighted by a Miraflores decree.
From a
technical point of view, the government can put its technicians to work to
"mine" Petros. But it also has to get many people to do so around the
world, not only here in Venezuela, precisely to create the incentive to trade
that sovereign criptocurrency in a real exchange currency like the dollar,
which it requires in order to make payments in the international financial
system. But what would be the use of that if there is no
market confidence?
Finally, and
most importantly, privacy: will providers around the world want to submit to
having their transactions carried out and monitored by a system of a
totalitarian, Castro-communist regime through an electronic system of sovereign
payments? I think that question buries Petro as a Sovereign Cryptocurrency before
birth...
Caracas,
January 15, 2018
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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