I just read the white paper for Venezuela's Petro coin, and it reminded me of something unexpected.
The Petro, by the way, is the proposed new cryptocurrency that will be issued by the Venezuelan government.
The token sale will happen later in February, and the tokens will supposedly be backed by natural assets found in Venezuela.
(By the way, did you know that Venezuela has the world's largets proven reserves of oil, greater than Saudi Arabia? It was news to me when I read it in the white paper, but it's borne out by other sources.)
Anyways, here's the interesting thing I spotted in the Petro white paper.
It sounds very much like a video sales letter I've been watching.
Maybe you've heard of it.
It's called the "End of America," and it was put out by a publishing house called Stansberry Research around 2010.
It was apparently one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever in the financial industry, and it was responsible for hundreds of thousands of new subscriptions for Stansberry.
The "End of America" sales letter was all about the impending crash of the U.S. economy, which will happen when the dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency.
In other words, once other countries stop counting everything in dollars, the dollar will stop being as valuable as it is today, and we will see the end of America as we know it.
Here are some interesting similarities between the Petro white paper and the "End of America" sales letter:
- They both start from the premise that the dollar's position has been great for the U.S and bad for the rest of the world
- They both mention the Bancor proposal for an international currency to replace the dollar
- They both talk about the IMF and its attempts to create yet another international currency
- They are both on the topic of desperate governments printing money in order to stave off collapse (the dollar in the U.S., the Petro in Venezuela)
Now, I'm not sure whether Venezuela's Petro has any hope of raising any funds during its ICO or succeeding down the line.
Steemit users are divided on the issue.
@blck0 jokes, "I would not touch the Petro with a 497498 block height stick!"
@cranium asks the reasonable question, if Venezuela couldn't make its paper currency work, why will it be any better with crypto?
And still others, like @roraima90, seem optimistic that the Petro will become valuable in time.
Whatever the case, I think it's very interesting that small, poor countries that are out of favor with the U.S are looking to blockchain as a way of surviving on the international scene.
And maybe in the years to come, one or two such initiatives will actually replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and we might finally see the end of America, just like Stansberry Research have been predicting for years.
John Bejakovic
P.S. I was watching the End of America video because I do copywriting, and I like to learn from the best. If you need help with sales copywriting around the topic of blockchain, you can get in touch with me at: