Venezuelans must use a different mode of currency to pay for passports. Venezuela has had an economic crisis since the oil plummet of 2014; Venezuela’s dependency on oil for exports is believed to be the impetus for this. Amidst the economic crisis, more than 2,000,000 citizens have fled the country. The Venezuelan’s government measures to tackle the problem include a number of policies including: wage hikes, raising VAT tax, and the state-backed cryptocurrency Petro. Venezuelans must use this cryptocurrency to pay for passports; but with the whitepaper being likely stolen, there are interesting implications which can be derived of how the government is dealing with its economic as well as refugee crisis.
The Venezuelan government is showing signs of being desperate for reason that the Venezuelan President has mocked those who have left amidst its refugee crisis, adding they “fall for propaganda only to leave and clean toilets in Miami.” (“Latin American states to accept Venezuela expired papers”). In response to the President’s (Nicholas Maduro) proposed measures to fix the economy the Caracas-based consultancy Econometrica’s director Henkel Garcia described the plan as a “head-scratcher” and that “This series of measures is a mix of incoherent and contradictory ideas.” (“Venezuela prepares to devalue currency…”) The proposed measures include wage hikes, raising VAT tax, as well as using the state-backed cryptocurrency Petro for purchases. The effect of Wage hikes has been terrible on employment: Bloomberg reports closings on businesses and employers having to fire workers due to the increase on wages (“Venezuela raises minimum wage…). Moreover, the Venezuelan attitude on people fleeing suggests that the government wants people to stay despite looming health crises and unemployment problems: the hyperinflations have made the cost of toilet paper comparatively smaller than the pile of bolivars needed to buy the paper itself. The Venezuelan government’s actions against cynicism are curious in that they are showing signs of aggressively dealing with the problem: Ethereum (cryptocurrency) developer says that Petro, officially launched by the President has blatantly copied Dash’s whitepaper, another cryptocurrency; the merit to the claim being similar mining algorithms, mechanisms, and more importantly an exact copy of an image of the whitepaper. The Petro is set to be on public sale November 5th, but a question that can be raised is whether this will affect cryptocurrency exchange. Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group, said that Venezuela had become the second largest market for Dash; a negative effect on Venezuela can only hurt how it can treat its economic problems (“Venezuela Petro…”). The same can be said about its refugee crisis.
Venezuela is not in a good state. The amount of people fleeing coupled with its drastic measures suggests that is not heading in a good direction; but the Petro being backed by the country’s oil reserves as well as mining reserves show that the country is showing a reduced dependency on oil. This is a good thing since it is commonly regarded that oil dependency is one of the major factors for its economic crisis (“How Venezuela’s crisis developed and drove out millions of people”). Only time can tell if these measures will pull off.
Latin America is affected by the situation in that the amount of people fleeing has been overwhelming (“Latin American States to accept Venezuelan papers”). More generally, Venezuela can be an example of how a country shouldn’t be reliant on one source of income. Another important question that can be raised is how a lack of economic complexity in producing can be detrimental to the profits of a country (“Venezuela makes Petro.”). By focusing on its economy Venezuela is helping its citizens, but the addressing of Venezuelan migrants is much concern: BBC reports that this is one of the largest displacements in the western hemisphere.
The Venezuelan government is revealing action to combat its economic problems, but its measures are concerning regarding ethics and its ability to perform its measures. Venezuela is set on solving its economic problems, but they might even be counterproductive. The future of Venezuela looks bleak.

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