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. Toward the end of a panel discussion, Abir said the Bank of Israel had already run a digital currency pilot. However, Abir said he was not optimistic that such a central-bank digital currency (CBDC) would ever be launched. “The payment system in Israel is at least a decade behind other countries,” he said. “No central bank will introduce a digital currency for this purpose.
