The Israeli government is creating its own “digital shekel,” according to multiple reports.

The move is apparently driven by the desire to reduce black market activity, which makes up 22% of the country’s GDP, the report says. Hand in hand with this is a move to reduce paper cash, a great deal of which is used to facilitate untaxed transactions. Israel joins Russia in the creation of a national token, but unlike in Russia, cryptocurrency use is generally legal in Israel. Russia’s government called the move defensive, saying that if it did not issue a crytoruble, someone else would. Sweden, a relatively cash-light economy already, is also looking at a digital krona.

Some crypto-enthusiasts scoff at the move by governments to issue digital currencies, because a government would oversee the coin’s use, and would have have the power to add or remove coins from circulation.

“The Israeli regulators have been looking into digital currencies for a while, we were even part of this conversation,” said Mark Smargon, a co-founder of the Israeli crypto startup Colu. “If this initiative becomes a reality, Colu will be happy to collaborate… as we believe digital currencies are the future of money.”

Read more at Cointelegraph and Haaretz.

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