Petrol Token

Frequently asked questions

Is it money?

No. The token exists only on a test network, where POL too is free and worthless. It cannot be bought with euros or converted into euros. It is there to teach how oracles and tokens work.

Can I redeem litres of petrol?

No. 1 token is "worth one litre" only in the contract's arithmetic, as a unit of measure. No filling station accepts it, and it does not protect you from rises in the real price.

Who sets the price?

The price originates from the filling stations, which report it to the Ministry. Our program computes the median and writes it to the oracle through a single authorised address. Whoever controls that address can therefore decide what the contract "believes": that is the trust limit of every simple oracle.

What if the Ministry changes its API?

The service we use is the one behind the Osservaprezzi app and has no stability guarantee: it may change format or restrict access. Then the program writes nothing, the price becomes "old" after 3 days and operations stop. The fix is to update the program or switch to the open data files the Ministry publishes.

What are the limits of a median?

It resists typos, but not a distortion that affects many stations at once. It also represents only one area (about forty stations around Arezzo), not the whole of Italy. And a station's data can be hours or days late.

What would a real product need?

A real, verifiable reserve covering every token in circulation, clear rules on who may issue and redeem, an oracle with several sources and several signers, independent security checks (audits) of the code, and compliance with the financial and tax rules that apply, which for a real product requires specialist advice.