One of Venezuela’s leading crypto exchanges says that government policy led it to develop a text message-powered payment system that will allow it to conduct transactions in a range of cryptoassets, including the nation’s own state-issued, oil-backed token.
The Criptolago platform wrote, in a tweet,
“As per the guidelines of President Nicolas Maduro, our new SMS payments function has created an opportunity for all Venezuelan citizens to conduct petro transactions in a very practical manner.”
The solution, says the exchange, will not only allow customers to conduct petro transactions via text message, but also send fiat bolivars, as well as , , and the native token of Venezuelan “cryptobank” Glufco.
Critics in the country have complained that, as many older people and poorer citizens still make use of “second-gen” mobiles and have limited or no smartphone or broadband internet access, they have struggled to access petro welfare payouts.
Although this solution will unlikely provide a quick fix for the thousands of senior citizens and public sector workers who claim they have still not been able to access year-end petro payouts issued in December 2019, there are signs that Maduro’s government could be looking to extend the scope of its petro project.
A recent tweet from a pro-crypto group with links to Caracas containing a long list of suggested petro-powered solutions to the country’s coronavirus-related economic slump was criticized by many critics for perceived accessibility-related flaws.
The proposals contained a number of solutions linked to the Patria crypto remittance platform, which critics say is out of the reach of some 30% of the country. Almost a third of Venezuelans are believed to have very limited or no internet access.
Should other crypto exchanges look to follow suit, it could be a further indication that Criptolago’s move is linked to a much wider, Caracas-led initiative.
Criptolago will not be the first platform to offer crypto exchange services via text message. Trading platforms such as CoinText have been offering SMS-powered crypto services since 2019, while a platform named NanoSMS claimed in March this year that its own gateway provides wallet access “to anyone with a 2G mobile phone.”
