In May the Bank of Israel unveiled the Digital Shekel Challenge, inviting participants to propose novel central bank digital currency (CBDC) applications through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). It was inspired by a similar BIS and Bank of England initiative, Project Rosalind. Today it announced the selection of 14 teams. Given the deep technical skill base in Israel, it’s not surprising that around a dozen of the teams are Israeli.
We believe just two teams don’t have direct Israeli links. One is IDEMIA France, known for its offline CBDC functionality. The other is OxPay, although there are several companies that go by that name.
Apart from IDEMIA which has more than $3 billion in revenues, two of the larger participants are Fireblocks and PayPal (Israel). Technically Fireblocks is U.S. based but is Israeli founded. It’s best known for its custody technology and the Fireblocks Network and recently has been using that network to target payments. Fireblocks is also a partner of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in the development of digital government bonds and digital assets.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
