Bitcoin in Israel, Part 3: Interview on Alternative Currencies
Alternative cryptocurrencies have been an important part of the Bitcoin ecosystem for a long time; the first one to reach any prominence, Namecoin, was first released in early 2011, and since then many more have entered the stage. We have Litecoin running with an alternative mining algorithm that is less skewed toward specialized hardware, Primecoin....
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The Bank of Israel (BoI) and the Israeli Ministry of Finance have issued a joint statement calling on the public to exercise caution with regard to digital currencies. The warning falls in line with what we've heard from regulators across the world over the past few months. The Bank of Israel and the ministry stress that digital currencies are not legal tender, nor are they issued or backed by a central bank, which means there is not legal requirement for anyone to accept or exchange them. The joint statement was issued following a meeting convened by the Governor of the Bank of Israel,....
Over the past two months numerous regulators have issued warnings against the use of digital currencies, and some have even taken concrete steps to halt trading, most notably China and India. Israel, however, appears to be taking a different approach. Israeli regulators are not ignoring digital currencies, they are simply waiting to see what the rest of the world does about them. Certain Israeli financial institutions are engaged in bitcoin transactions, and they would like to see clear guidance from regulators. However, the Bank of Israel, the Israel Securities Authority and government....
The Bitcoin community in Israel has made considerable waves over the past year. A meetup group that, one year ago, had less than twenty people attending every month, now has over sixty people attending every two weeks, with a record of over three hundred in April. The Israeli Bitcoin Facebook group recently grew to over 800 members, an impressive amount for a country of only eight million. Tel Aviv, a city of 410,000, has no less than three Bitcoin-accepting restaurants - a higher density than even that of Berlin. Finally, perhaps most importantly of all, Israel is know worldwide for being....
In the last part of this series, we talked about the state of Bitcoin in Israel and the efforts of Israeli Bitcoin community organizers Meni Rosenfeld and Ron Gross in running the Israeli meetup group. Here, we talk about the next stage in the Israeli Bitcoin community's growth: the effort to set up an Israeli Bitcoin Association. National Bitcoin organizations have been a popular subject lately, with the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada soon to announce its official launch and similar organizations in other countries now picking up worldwide. But what is the benefit of having a national Bitcoin....
While some countries proceed to search for a way to get something out of elusive cryptocurrencies, Israel prefers to wait it out until someone else makes a step forward. As usual, everybody knows that coin is out there but no action is taken to legalize it or somehow disprove its right to be used as a currency. Israel on the other hand may go a different way. They do not plan to overlook the situation with digital currency, quite the opposite they are watching closely what the other boys in the sandbox will do. However, the concern is beginning to grow and as with other countries, the part....