Bank of Israel Using Ethereum in Digital Shekel Trial
- Sources close to the matter revealed that the trial was carried out on Ethereum.
- Deputy Governor Abir still remains skeptical about the release of the digital shekel in the next five years.
The national flag of Israel. Shutterstock
During a recent conference of the Fair Value Forum of IDC Herzliya, Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir said that a digital shekel pilot test has already been carried out. Abir also confirmed that the country’s central bank has issued a digital version of its national currency, but remained skeptical about its prospective launch. According to The Jerusalem Post, Abir said that there was “less than a 50% chance” of Israel issuing a digital shekel in the next five years.
And while Abir hasn’t revealed any details about the trial the Bank of Israel has carried out, a source close to the matter revealed that the internal pilot project was carried out on Ethereum. The Globes reported that the central bank has issued an ERC-20 token based on Ethereum and has set up digital wallets. The wallets enabled members of the bank’s IT department to transfer valueless digital shekels to each other.
The source noted that no real money was involved during the trial and the use of Ethereum was limited to a closed network and was “in no way connected to the general Ethereum network or its cryptocurrency.” Similar closed-off networks are being used in other central bank digital currency trials around the world, including in Australia, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
- ISA is looking to squeeze digital assets into already existing securities laws, which would allow it to treat them as financial investments.
- Another proposal will define crypto as “digital representations” of value that are used for financial investment that can be transferred using a distributed ledger.
The national flag of Israel. Shutterstock
- MetaMask Bridges was designed to aggregate multiple blockchain bridges in one place, making it easier and more secure for users to transfer their assets from one network to another.
- The new feature currently supports the Ethereum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Polygon blockchains, as well as the Connext, Hop, Celer cBridge, and Polygon Bridge.
- Over the weekend the Ethereum PoW network fell victim to a replay exploit, with the attacker executing the same transaction on two chains at the same time.
- The exploit was caused by a contract vulnerability in the Omni cross-chain bridge, and did not affect the ETHW network itself.