True or not, what we know is that the Petro is the first ever cryptocurrency issued by a nation state. The average Venezuelan is struggling to buy food, according to Human Rights Watch, and millions more have fled in the last couple of years alone. Jahromi said on Twitter that Iran would "implement the country's first cloud-based digital currency." We, too, can create a digital currency," said MHP party deputy chairman and former Industry Minister Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu in the Al-Monitor daily on Feb. 22. "Since the demand exists, we should create and release our own digital currency," he said.

Source: Forbes February 26, 2018 19:17 UTC