In fact, by the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Iran launched a state cryptocurrency backed by gold, PayMon (PMN). Will the story of Venezuelan El Petro repeat? Is Ali Khamenei prepared for the fate of Nicolas Maduro? When to wait in Tehran popular uprising with local Guaido? And how is this related to crypto?
Governments, be careful with crypto!
The community should be glad that such significant events are taking place in the industry. State stablecoin, and backed by gold! But doubts are inspired by the sad series of events in Venezuela, where stablecoin Petro (PTR) was also launched, backed by black gold, which Venezuela is rich in. El Petro was launched with the hot support of President Maduro and by using administrative leverage. By “coincidence”, the mass demonstrations of the outraged Venezuelan people happened just on the eve of the free circulation of the coin, after the decision to issue a salary to civil servants in crypto. Another “coincidental coincidence” is the collapse of the NEM cryptocurrency, on this platform Petro was launched. The collapse coincided with the onset of popular uprising, the “Chinese blockchain” fell down almost in half.
With the price of a token of $ 60 (the cost of a barrel of oil), 100 M PTR were released, of which 82.4 M was sold. The goal was $ 2.088 billion. According to the Government of Maduro, the plan was, of course, exceeded, $ 3.3 billion was collected. No independent audit, but the figure of $ 735 M was leaked into the information space as the real amount of funds raised. But skeptics do not believe in this amount either. Venezuelan émigré programmer Alejandro Machado said in his fascinating tweet that such funds did not move from the Petro NEM wallet. Anyway, according to the dissident, the price of a PTR of $ 60 is completely arbitrary. Heavy Venezuelan oil is not worth so much, not in the ground no on a tanker.
Maduro tried to hedge up and added even more confusion when he announced the additional launch of “gold” Petro, backed by gold. It seems that this decision occurred to him after the success of the oil cryptocurrency. But no details followed. It is even unclear whether the country’s gold reserves or explored gold deposits were discussed.
What is the bottom line? For the first time in history, stablecoin acquires the status of a scam.
Iranian way
Unlike young Venezuela with its quasi-socialist experiments, Iran is one of the oldest countries in the world with traditions of several thousand years. Its millennial history is a story of eminences and falls, and eternal disobedience in the face of external forces. This is rich land at the crossroads of civilizations. Somewhere near there the Garden of Eden was situated. Ancient Iran constantly fought – with Hellas, Rome, Israel. The confrontation with Israel continues now. Hence the hostile attitude of the United States to Iran. It was precisely the heavy, suffocating international sanctions adopted at the initiative of the United States against Iran and pushed him to look for a way out with crypto. In particular, re-disconnection from the international settlement system SWIFT. This has already happened in the history of the Islamic Republic. Remained unpleasant memories, obviously.
The differences between Iran and Venezuela do not end on the history . This is a powerful innovative economy. And it is all the more surprising that it develops in spite of external pressure. GDP growth is kept at 5-7%. Iran has its own nuclear, rocket and even space program. It is because of the nuclear program that Israel fought against it, despite Tehran’s assurances that its program is a “peaceful atom”. Where is peaceful – there is non-peaceful – Tel Aviv reasonably notes. At the same time, the interests of Russia and the international community collided: Russia is building the second phase of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Some time there were rumors that Iran and Russia are considering the possibility of settlements in cryptocurrency. But, obviously, a more traditional way was found.
But the EU, which also suffers economic losses from sanctions against Iran, does not seem to go without crypto. France and Germany took courage, went against Washington and said that they were developing a settlement system with Iran to bypass sanctions. The system is called the “special purpose vehicle” (SPV), the formal name was INSTEX, the French and the British finance it, and the management is German. No other details, except that office is situated in France. It was stated that they are building a system based on barter. But where is the barter – and where is the 21st century! Rather, it’s just an excuse “to the public.” Moreover, practically in those days when INSTEX was announced, a message appeared about the launch of the Iranian cryptocurrency. Again a coincidence? Overloaded with coincidences!