Israel Bank announces preliminary design plan for 'multi-purpose' digital shekel

According to CoinDesk, the Bank of Israel has proposed a possible future design for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), provided that a decision is made to launch this currency in the future. In a document released on Tuesday, the Bank of Israel described the proposed digital shekel (DS) as a "multi-purpose CBDC" that can be used for both retail and wholesale purposes. The document states: "The digital shekel will be a multi-purpose digital currency that can meet the retail needs of end-users such as households and businesses, as well as the wholesale needs of financial institutions." Therefore, the Bank of Israel will provide a digital currency equivalent to cash, while upgrading the existing settlement systems of financial institutions to add "smart" features such as composability and programmability. The Bank of Israel also emphasized that it has not yet made a decision on whether to issue a CBDC. Therefore, the design proposal presented in the document should only be considered as a preliminary idea.