Israel has already conducted a pilot test of a digital shekel cryptocurrency, Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir said, perhaps inadvertently, at a recent conference of the Fair Value Forum of IDC Herzliya.
We can now add Israel to the ever expanding list of nations that are actively looking into Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or in cases like China and Israel have gone as far as to test and/or implement their own digital currency. Below is list of these nations (or central banks) which is by no means exhaustive. They’re only the ones I’ve focused on thus far.
It was only a month ago that news broke out that Israel was becoming more serious in looking into a digital shekel by crafting an action plan to look into its feasibility, “A document published by the central bank on Tuesday [May 11th, 2021] outlines the draft model of a Bank of Israel digital currency. Called ‘A Bank of Israel Digital Shekel – Potential Benefits, Draft Model, and Issues to Examine,’ the draft model is accompanied by a public call for responses to its contents”, (The Times of Israel).
In May, the Bank of Israel said it was preparing an action plan for how it could offer a digital currency. The concept of issuing such a currency has been in discussion since 2017, but it decided to accelerate its research and preparation for the potential issuance “in view of the rapid developments in the digital economy and in payments, and in view of the major central banks’ work on the issue.” (The Jerusalem post)
And now, to the surprise of some, Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir confirmed that a pilot for a digital shekel has indeed been done. The rapid change in mindset towards digital currency by Israel is no surprise to me and is something I’ve been saying we should expect as I highlighted this clearly in my previous article, The Race Towards a Central Bank Digital Currency.
In the article I noted that as acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies widens it will also lead to a greater race for CBDC and this is what we’re witnessing play out. As we keep this in mind, we also have to realize that no nation is going to want to lag behind in this race.
In my article, What is the Prophetic Significance of Digital Currency?, I elaborated on why I believe this digital currency race is prophetically significant. I believe that it’s possible that this “CBDC race” may very well contribute to or be laying the groundwork for the mark of the beast system that comes about during the tribulation and that as we see efforts for this progress it shows us how close this time period is, and even closer the rapture of the church.
Israel has already tested a digital shekel cryptocurrency
The Jerusalem Post: Toward the end of a panel discussion, Abir said the Bank of Israel had already run a digital currency pilot. Another member of the panel seemed surprised and asked: “You have already issued a coin?” Abir responded in the affirmative.
However, Abir said he was not optimistic that such a central-bank digital currency (CBDC) would ever be launched.
“I had previously estimated that the chance of having a CBDC within five years is 20%,” Abir said. “My estimate has increased a bit in the last year, mainly because other countries are advancing with it too. But still there is less than a 50% chance.”
In May, the Bank of Israel said it was preparing an action plan for how it could offer a digital currency. The concept of issuing such a currency has been in discussion since 2017, but it decided to accelerate its research and preparation for the potential issuance “in view of the rapid developments in the digital economy and in payments, and in view of the major central banks’ work on the issue.”
A CBDC would rely on distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain, but it would be different from the cryptocurrencies that are popular today, including bitcoin. The most important difference is that while cryptocurrencies do not belong to any specific country, and some are characterized by having no central authority to manage them, a CBDC issued by a country’s central bank would be regulated by the relevant state authorities.
“The option for a CBDC is still being examined, and when we made our statement last month, it was not to say what we are doing, but rather to share what we do not know and receive feedback from the public,” Abir said.
“The payment system in Israel is at least a decade behind other countries,” he said. “But in the last year, we have started to close the gap with the distribution of the infrastructure that allows contactless payments and the entry of digital wallets.” Read More
Sources
- Israel has already tested a digital shekel cryptocurrency (June 21st, 2021) – The Jerusalem Post
- Digital shekel may be coming as Bank of Israel preps an ‘action plan’ (May 11th, 2021) – The Times of Israel