After Venezuela, Turkish official now ponders national cryptocurrency ‘Turkcoin’​

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The proposal says the Turkcoin will be backed by large public assets.

In the wake of Venezuela’s “successful” token sale, a Turkish official now proposes following in their footsteps and creating a national cryptocurrency for Turkey, called “Turkcoin.” Middle East media site Al-Monitor says that Turkey’s former industry minister and deputy chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu has submitted a 22-page proposal to create the “national bitcoin” despite the government’s hostile stance against cryptocurrencies.

“The world is advancing toward a new digital system. Turkey should create its own digital system and currency before it’s too late,” Tanrikulu told Al-Monitor. According to his proposal, the Turkcoin will be backed by government-owned assets such as the Turkish Airlines, the Istanbul Stock Exchange, the gas company Botas, Turk Telekom, Ziraat Bank and the National Lottery. And while it cannot compare with BTC’s price increases, it is far more stable and will not drop as much as other cryptocurrencies either.

It’s hard not to see it as anything but a bid to ride in on the cash flood brought by the cryptocurrency trade, even though the Turkcoin’s asset backing may be more believable than the Venezuelan petro’s.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro says their national cryptocurrency petro has raised over $735 million within 24 hours, although without a third party to attest to the fact, some doubt the credibility of the figure—the Venezuelan government’s history of manipulating trade rates obviously hasn’t gained them much trust from the public.

In addition, there is no documentation showing the structure of the petro network, or how it can be tied to the price of oil—to do this, one would assume a highly sophisticated system that is constantly connected and synced with the entire country’s supply chain. To date, the petro’s white paper is nowhere to be found.

It’s unsurprising that some do not believe it’s even a currency and are dismissing it as a half-baked desperation move to make money. Venezuela’s economy, after all, has been sinking deeper than ever. And opposition legislators say the president is merely issuing “oil-backed debt.”

That Maduro is in such a rush to launch another token sale for “petro gold” before they can even properly launch the first one isn’t comforting either.