Venezuela is further expanding its crypto foothold in what seems to be a tact towards salvaging the country’s economy while evading imposed sanctions, especially by the United States. Through one of its engineering brigades, the Venezuelan army recently revealed a Bitcoin mining center dubbed ‘Digital Assets Production Center of the Bolivarian Army of Venezuela.’

Inaugurated via an Instagram post, the center is fitted with ASIC machines to mine crypto assets by cracking the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm. This implies that Bitcoin is probably the main asset which the Venezuelan army plans to mine within its newly launched facility.

The move comes as Venezuelans continue to struggle to make ends meet after the country’s economy tumbled on oil prices coupled with political uncertainty under Maduro’s administration. Today, the Venezuelan Bolivar is almost useless, trading at 1 million VES against the U.S dollar.

Given the circumstances, it is not surprising that Venezuela is among the jurisdictions that have experimented with crypto assets the most. The state had approved its oil-backed crypto-asset dubbed ‘petrodollar’; however, it did not solve the shortcomings as expected.

The Venezuelan army now says that a mining center might be part of the solution to its ailing economy and sanctions. Presenting the new operation, General Lenin Herrera noted that the goal is to strengthen and achieve self-sustainability within the Bolivarian army units.

He went on to highlight that this milestone will also generate ‘unblockable sources of income.’ Therefore, he could act as an alternative in evading colonial interests from countries like the U.S. Notably, Venezuela recently legalized Bitcoin mining but with a central oversight through a national digital mining pool.

452 +