Trump Bans Venezuela's New National Cryptocurrency (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday banning any transactions within the United States involving any digital currency issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela. The order applies to U.S. citizens as well as anyone within the United States, and includes cryptocurrency issued on or after January 9. President Trump's order is in response to recent attempts by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime to "circumvent U.S. sanctions by issuing a digital currency," the White House said in a statement. Venezuela launched its oil-backed cryptocurrency in February to help pull the country out of a continuing economic crisis. President Maduro said each petro token will be backed by one barrel of the state's national petroleum. Maduro also said roughly 100 million tokens would be issued -- estimated to be worth around $6 billion. Bitcoin prices dropped about $200 to around $8,388, according to Coinbase, following the order.

Comments

Re:Does Dear Leader

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he does not. He can ban it from the government, but he has zero authority to tell individuals or companies what they can and can't accept as payment for goods or services.

Re:/sarcasm Let's ban Math while we are at it !

[mi]

It is fairly common for /.-ers to not bother reading TFA. But the answers to your "sarcastic" questions are right there in the write-up — you didn't have to click away to read them...

So if I "own" Venezuelan cryptocoin will I be hauled off to jail ???

The executive order bans transactions — not ownership. If you own it, you aren't subject to any punishment until you try to sell it.

If I leave the U.S., say go visit Canada, can I then "buy" Venezuelan cryptocoins?

If you are a US citizen, you will be violating the order — and become subject to whatever punishment prescribed. Not very different from the ban on travel to Cuba, for example — it was illegal, but people did manage to get away with it.

Perhaps more importantly is why would you seek to circumvent this one... Maduro's government is even more stupid and evil than Chavez' was — and Chavez managed to not only destroy Venezuela's economy, the rate of murders and rapes quadrupled during the first 15 years of his rein (even before oil price tanked). Are you just as critical about US sanctions against Russia?..

If, as I suspect, you are motivated simply by the desire to "stick it" to Trump, I urge you to move to Venezuela permanently...