There is a mock saying here in Israel. A little emotional show that requires audience. You raise your hands and ask the heaven above if the Jewish people haven’t suffered enough already. You have to be sufficiently theatrical to qualify, but this often comes with the territory. You are also not supposed to overuse it so as not to reduce its effect.

It should be of a little surprise, therefore, that this was exactly what I did upon reading a headline along the lines of “Bank of Israel is facing a dramatical change: the digital Sheqel is on its way”.

Once my heart pace slowed down again, I followed the link to read the article.

Apparently, the BoI put together a commission to study the topic. The commission came back with its recommendations as to when and how should the bank ever introduce a Central Bank Digital Coin (CBDC). The bottom line: it should, but under very specific circumstances. I list them below with my own comments

• Major countries including the US and EU launch their own CBDCs. While there are pilot programs, neither the US nor the EU are anywhere close to launch a digital coin.
• The number of legitimate cash deals in the country drops to a really low level. This may happen sometimes in the future, but in the meantime a major effort of legislation and enforcement is applied to at least ban all-cash deals above $1500.
• A stable coin or similar payment method gains wide traction in the Israeli market. Not happening in the foreseeable future.
• Rapid decrease of competition in the local payments market. The regulation works hard to increase the competition, including recent recognition of EU PSD2 licensees. While it could happen, the regulators are united in their push towards further increase of the competition, so this scenario is, too, extremely unlikely.
• A yet unknown technological advance in the financial market that will require CBDC to operate. Or aliens land and force us.

In summary, while the Bank of Israel did define possible scenarios for it to launch a digital coin, it is almost as likely as an alien invasion.

It appears that, with all the bitcoins and the Etheriums, the people did have suffered enough, at least for the time being.