Update on the (non-existing) huge sales success of the petro(updated March 6)20.2.Maduro announces only 20 hours after the launch of the presale, 4,777 millions yuans or
735 million dollars as the initial result of “operations of intention of buying el petro”. This expression sounds funny (also in the original Spanish) but makes clear what Maduro is speaking about: You could only register online for the presale or initial sale if at a certain point you stated your intention to buy petros in US dollars, euros, yuans, ethereum or bitcoins by giving a range in the given currency. (Let say you would indicate that you intend to buy petros for 10,000-15,000 US dollars.) Now this indication of how much you intend to buy is meaningless. It doesn’t have any legal relevance. Many people gave some numbers just out of curiosity. So, assuming that Maduro isn’t outrightly lying, we are informed that 20 hours after the launch people all over the world registered their non-binding interest to buy petros for 735 million dollars. It is not clear, whether the government used the upper – probably – or loader bound to arrive at that number. (
http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/presidente-maduro-intencion-de-compra-del-petro-supera-los-596-millones-de-euros/)
22.2.Maduro announces that only two days after the launch there are already offers and negotiations surpassing
1 billion dollars. There were 292,000 offers of intention to buy, 36% made in dollars, 15% in euros, 18% in ethereum and 31% in bitcoins. (Together 100%. Interesting to note, that while two days before Madure first mentions the amount of offers in yuans, actually only a minimal amount was offered in this currency.) From theses offers 133,665 people were contacted. (Making it evident, that those “more then 1000 million dollars” are mostly non-binding intentions.) Actually that probably meant, that 133,665 got a second email with a link to a binding contract. (There are many people who never received such a second email!) We don’t know how many people actually signed and sent in this (immoral!) contract. But it is to be expected that we will see some of them complaining on twitter when they realize that they bought petros at a price they never wanted to. (
http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/presidente-maduro-ofertas-y-negociaciones-vinculadas-al-petro-superan-los-us-1000-millones/)
In the same talk on facebook Maduro also speaks about negotiations which where (successfully?) completed about 350 million dollars to pay for inputs for Venezuelan industry with petros. (I would like to know the terms of such a contract – if it indeed exists.) As he announced “offers and negatiations” surpassing 1 billion dollars, those 350 million are probably part of the whole sum.
26.2.Maduro announces the number of 171,000 certified and verified offers of intentions to buy and clarifies that differentially from former numbers these offers are certified and verified. We don’t know what that means. Given the time frame and the fact that Maduro continues to speak about “offers of intentions to buy” I assume that he still speaks of those non-binding online offers which were cut down buy some criterion not known to us. Maybe it is just the number of offers of people who got a second email. I don’t think he speaks about people who actually send in the signed binding contract: To certify and verify these in a meaningful way would take more time. One would also wonder, why he didn’t change wording away from “offers of intentions to buy” and speaks of potential buyers as
users, if he were referring to those binding contracts. Finally all the information he gives (that the offers come from 87,284 users, among them 3,523 companies and 83,761 natural persons; the breakdown into currencies and the list of 127 countries where offers come from) can be gained from the online process. It is telling that he doesn’t say anything about the amount of those “certified and verified” offers: No doubt, this number is much lower than the numbers announced so far. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzavISvS0vU,
http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/criptomoneda-venezolana-petro-ha-recibido-171-015-ofertas-de-compras-certificadas/)
Evidently, in part I’m speculating here. But given that the government fails to actually
inform on the process and instead only publishes disconnected numbers for propaganda purposes that’s all we can do.
The same day TeleSur publishes a video “informing” about the petro. The numbers about the presale are based on Maduros declarations on the 22nd of February (292,000 offers, 36% in USD ...). But they speak of
1.2 billion dollars being “raised” and 40 million of petros being “sold”. This is obviously wrong, as Maduro himself made clear that these were only “offers of intention to buy”. The last number of 40 million of petros being sold seems to be simply derived from those 1.2 billion dollars, dividing them by 30, the dollar price of the first batch of petros during presale according to the latest version of the white paper. If actually already 40 million of petros were sold, this would go against the white paper which only assigns 34 million of petros to presale. They also say that those 40 million of petros where sold in 3 million of operations. This doesn’t make any sense and plainly contradicts the Maduro’s information from the same day and the days before. (
https://videos.telesurtv.net/video/705228/el-petro-vende-40-millones-de-unidades/)
27.2.Maduro anounces that the day before offers of already more than
3 billions dollars were received. This tops the 1,2 billions from the 22nd of February (as reported by TeleSur on the 26) but (if it isn’t an outright lie) most probably is based again mostly on non-binding online offers and not on binding contracts and not even on “certified and verified” online offers. (
http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/sites/default/files//Nicol%C3%A1s%20Maduro_378.mp3,
http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/article/m%C3%A1s-de-3-mil-millones-de-d%C3%B3lares-reportan-ofertas-vinculadas-al-petro)
5.3.Maduro declares that Venezuela is completing the protocol of 30 days of presale. The number of certified offers of intention to buy went up to 186.306. Again he doesn’t say how much was offered through these certified offers. 0,3% of the offers were in yuan. The offers were certified by a Russian company which uses the most advanced technological platform of the world. (Zeus? What technology would that be?)
http://ciudadmcy.info.ve/?p=29564https://mundo.sputniknews.com/americalatina/201803061076781051-caracas-moneda-virtual/Presale didn't start yetAccording to the white paper “
Pre-sale will start on February 20,2018 and
will consist of the creation and sale of smart-asset on the NEM blockchain platform.” CriptoNoticias (a digital journal dedicated to information on bitcoin and its technology) claims that it was told by sources near to the Venezuelan government that as of 22nd of February there is no such smart asset, repeating this claim on the 25th. (
https://www.criptonoticias.com/sucesos/petro-no-posee-contrato-inteligente-token-oficial-aun-fuentes/,
https://www.criptonoticias.com/adopcion/10-cosas-debes-saber-sobre-petro-criptoactivo-creado-estado-venezolano/) If this is true, presale, which was “launched” on February 20, didn’t start yet as no smart-asset was created, contrary to the time line of the white paper. There is actually a NEM-contract which is widely believed to be the contract for the presale token. But if this was the true contract then presale wouldn’t have started either, as
no token (“mosaic”) was sold so far: All tokens are held by the same owner. (
http://explorer.ournem.com/#/s_account?account=NCGBBZKOTERO3EXMPPCNDNDXZQQJXBEMWWO7MB66)
ResumeIf Maduro isn’t simply lying, they received a lot of non-binding offers (some of them not at all serious) and they are in the process of sifting them through. At the same time there
might be private negotiations (like the ones about the 350 million dollar sales in petro) we don’t know anything about and which might be successful or not. If they are successful, we will probably never hear about their terms. Presale in the terms of the white paper didn't start.