Despite the fact that it has not yet made a final decision on the launch of the “digital shekel”, Israel’s central bank reported that the public response to the project is mostly positive.
According to Reuters, on Monday, The Bank of Israel summarized the results of the public consultation on its plans for a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC). It has received 33 responses from different sectors, half of them from abroad and 17 from the national fintech community. Although he specified that the final decision on the fate of the project has not yet been made, he stated:
“All responses to the public consultation indicate support for continued research into the various payments market implications, financial and monetary stability, legal and technological issues, and more.”
While the public reportedly believes that the digital shekel would encourage competition in the payments market, it is the issue of privacy that has once again emerged as controversial. The bank mentions that some commentators prefer the future coin to be completely anonymous, while others insist that anti-money laundering and black marketeering makes anonymity impractical.. The Bank of Israel aims to continue research and a “fruitful dialogue with all stakeholders at all stages of research and development.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph about attitudes towards the digital shekel among the national crypto community, Elad Mor, head of Israel-based international blockchain PR firm MarketAcross, said:
“It seems that most digital shekel CBDC supporters are painting the issue as a broad-brush adoption narrative. In other words, any cryptocurrency adoption is still adoption, even if it does not adhere to the core values of cryptocurrency.” , such as decentralization and anti-institutionalism”.
Mor noted that not everyone in Israel’s digital finance sector shared the same vision. However, he himself believes that “bringing crypto to the masses has to start with institutional and government involvement to some degree.”
The central bank first considered the CBDC project in late 2017. A year later, the research team recommended stopping the project in the near future, but in May 2021, the Bank of Israel revived the idea. In November 2021, he said he would speed up the investigation. In March 2022, the Bank of Israel confirmed that it did not see an “erosion” threat to the national banking system from the possible launch of the digital shekel.
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