Israel Starts a CBDC Experiment for Payments

Israel is looking to accelerate the development of its national digital currency, the digital shekel, through a collaboration with various service providers.

The central bank announced a “Digital Shekel Challenge,” inspired by the “Project Rosalind” experiment by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of England.

The challenge involves building prototypes for a payment system using APIs in a sandbox environment provided by the Bank of Israel.

This initiative aims to create a real-time CBDC payment system for the public, with participants competing to build the best solution.

Participating projects will go through three phases, including application and presentations, access to the network, and a final presentation to a panel of judges with knowledge in the cryptocurrency field.