Venezuela's president showcases Trezor wallet on state TV

Nicolas Maduro, the crypto-loving president of Venezuela, yesterday made an appearance on the state’s TV station, Venezuelan Television Corporation. In the video, also posted on Maduro’s official Facebook page, the president holds a hardware wallet designed by Trezor, Trezor One. 

While Maduro espoused the virtues of the wallet, representatives from Trezor flanked the president, supposedly on hand to help answer any questions El Presidente might have. According to Trezor’s Twitter page, however, those representatives had nothing to do with the company.   

After being alerted to the video by a user, the company denied affiliation with the Trezor representatives who appeared next to Maduro on the news segment, which was speaking to private companies who have opened up shop in the region.

“We have no official resellers in Venezuela [and] we were not aware about the technological fair,” tweeted Trezor.

When asked by one tweeter if this meant that “Mr. Maduro might be trying to phish some bitcoiners into a fake Trezor,” Trezor responded that it is investigating the issue, and that it had not given permission to the alleged representatives to use the brand. 

In a follow up statement on its blog, Trezor wrote: “We’re in no way associated with those people claiming to be official representatives of Trezor, and do not endorse or permit their use of our brand. We are carefully investigating this copyright infringement.”

Trezor identifies those individuals in the video as formerly authorized resellers for Trezor, based on a mutual agreement made back in 2018. But, “due to inactivity,” Trezor struck the resellers from its list in June. 

Trezor has, however, been active in the region. It donated 150 Trezor One devices to Bitcoin Venezuela back in May, which were then sold or auctioned. The proceeds raised were used to help people on the streets of Venezuela.