BIG NEWS FOR THE ISRACOIN PROJECT!

We can finally officially release news that you can now buy condos in a high-end housing development project in Israel, using Isracoin and bitcoin as payment!
This has been in the works for quite some time now and it is finally here!

More big news are in the works and we will update on them as soon as we can.

We are happy to announce that the local fiat-Isracoin currency change site is open for beta.
This site allows anyone in Israel to exchange local Fiat into Isracoins directly, via local bank transfers.
This means the lay person can now get his hands on Isracoins without having to buy Bitcoins first, then going to a full-blown exchange and having to trade.
They can now just do a bank transfer in local currency, see the exchange rate on the site, state how many coins they want, and presto.
While this sounds trivial to those who are experienced in crypto trading, it is actually quite a big deal for the masses who have zero understanding of how to deal with such things.

We believe this is a critical piece of infrastructure that has been missing for quite a while now and we are still at work on expanding on it, by making Isracoins available for exchange in cash trades at local Change Stores.
We will update on that as soon as we can.

The site is available at: http://www.israchange.co.il
It is in Hebrew only and is still a very early version of itself.
It will most likely undergo changes, fixes, re-styling and so forth, but it is functional.

Update:

Final touches are being made to a website dedicated to selling Isracoins to the general public via local fiat bank transfers, allowing everyone in Israel to easily get their hands on ISR.
The coins are purchased from Bitrex and delivered to the buyers.
The site should be open to the public for beta testing within a few days time and will start full operations shortly thereafter.

This site is also intended to work directly with the Change Stores in Israel and we are in process with such stores to integrate it into them as well, which will allow the general public to also buy/sell their coins in cash directly at those stores.

Further updates and official announcement of the service will be made soon.

Guys, we update when there is something tangible to say.

Regarding the new wallet that is now being tested and finalized, it will include a naming functionality allowing users to register a nickname to an address (much like in namecoin, but more simplified, geared towards making this functionality usable and practical for the general population).
Also, of course, this will be a bitcoin 0.9 codebase.

Development and merger of a few systems into one website is just about finished. This includes a business directory, simplified business registration and validation process and the Local Isracoins systems, rolled up into one login/website structure.
we still need to put some final touches on it, including a better design for the front page, but for the most part it is done.

Development of a system for direct sales of coins to the general public via local fiat bank transfers is in advanced stages and will probably be beta tested within about a week.

We were finally able to schedule everyone for the Currency Change stores meeting and it went very well. we have an owner of such a store working with us now to bring Isracoin into his store first and after that is implemented, he will be undertaking the process of bringing it into as many such stores as he can in Israel (he is very well connected in this field). We have a general system already developed for this and the next step agreed on is to adapt it to be as similar to the systems they use in their stores, to make it as simple for the store clerks to learn it as possible.
What our system will do is essentially purchase the coins for the Change store via bittrex/hitbtc whenever they need to top off their stock.

The 2nd largest newspaper in the country has just published a bitcoin article and included Isracoin in it, giving it significant weight in the Israeli cryptoworld.
This was in fact supposed to be published more than 2 months ago, but due to the war it was put on backburner until now.
This to us means the time is right to start gearing up for a media assault which we plan to get started with once at least one of the above mentioned channels for buying Isracoins is open to the public. We imagine most of you understand why, but just in case, we feel it will best serve our patient investors' interests to not spend our media ammunition until the general public has simple means to get its hands on coins.

Oh and as of this morning, we seem to have gone up to 2nd place on BTER exchange voting.
We still haven't heard anything from HitBTC as to when they will actually put ISR up for trading, but as we've seen in the past, it usually takes them about 4-6 weeks after the winner is announced.

That about sums up most of the important things that you should be aware of at this point.

The facebook wallet/tipping system is already in an open Beta.
It is in Heb only for now and you can find information about it in the Isracoin Hebrew FB group.

Quick updates:

We are getting close to releasing a unified system (A portal, if you will) that will include improved and simplified business registration and validation, the new business directory and search and the improved Local Isracoins. This unified system will help people find what they need under the same website and make the experience more cohesive (This also includes a unified login for all systems).
We will also be adding a For Sale type of classifieds board to this system soon thereafter.

Also, we are having some meetings next week with owners of Change stores in Israel, to discuss details of how to implement adding Isracoin into their Change stores. There's already a system developed for working with them, but we need to figure out some integration, business decisions, regulatory issues etc.

Meanwhile, we are pushing forward with development of a website that will sell Isracoins via bank transfers of Israeli fiat currency. We expect this site to be up within 2-3 weeks or so. Possibly sooner. (The site will place orders for coins on bittrex and hitbtc to supply the local demand in Israel).

Thank you for the suggestion!
We will look into that as well.

When we say the government is making things complicated to get such units into the country, that's what we mean.
The unit has been in customs for a very long time now and there is no ETA on it being released.
Beyond that, the manufacturer is not very cooperative regarding integration of the coin, so with all of that (and the cost) in mind, we are doing everything else that was described in the previous posts.

BTW - Someone here asked about the ATM situation and as it stands, the government is making it somewhat complicated to import these and combined with the fact that the manufacturers are not very willing to adapt the system for new coins, makes this complicated. Adding to that the exceedingly high cost of these units, makes it a very difficult prospect for widespread use.

We are now talking to business partners of ours in China who developed their own ATM, which is supposed to be lower cost and who visited with us in Israel recently and are willing to adapt their system to support Isracoin.

So, to sum this up, the ATM approach is still on the horizon, but not as close as we first hoped.
This is also why we have been working on the other approach for making Isracoin more accessible, as detailed in the previous post.

Yes, it seems we are experiencing some nice growth and hope for it to be sustainable.

To achieve that sustainability, we are working on some long term infrastructure these days, the most important of which being channels for the general population in Israel to be able to invest in Isracoin, using local Fiat currency (NIS).
This is intended to come in two forms - a website that allows people to invest in Isracoins by local wire transfer and maybe credit-cards as well, and also integrating Isracoin into as many Change stores as we possibly can, out of the thousands of such stores in Israel, to allow people to buy Isracoins with cash.
Both of these are now in active development and discussions with such store owners and companies that develop the software used by these change stores etc.

That is correct.

The company has already agreed to this as per the details provided above. Now we are trying to coordinate taking this to the public together with a system that will allow the general public to buy Isracoins with local fiat. It is important to us to make this practical and give people a way to actually get their hands on such quantities of ISR.

We haven't heard anything specific from them, but from what we can tell it usually takes them about 3 weeks after they pick the winner.
So probably another 10 days or so, but that is just a rough estimation on our part.

A cool new social FB Isracoin wallet is now in beta tests!
As best we know, this is the first time ever a crypto wallet is made available on FB and we think its going to be very cool.
This wallet will help bring Isracoin to the hands of more people.
It is currently in Hebrew only and there's no ETA for English for now.

The really awesome thing about it - you can send Isracoins to ANY friend of yours on facebook, regardless of them having a wallet available.
They don't even need to be registered to the FB wallet yet to receive their first coins from you!

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since the last update, so here is what is in the works right now:

1. We are working on a press release that will detail a the acceptance of Isracoin as means of payment for buying land in a prestigious real-estate development. This has been in the works for quite some time and we will be releasing it in Israeli news media either this week or early next week. We can tell you that one of the really cool parts of this deal, other than being the first time in the world (as far as we know) that you can buy land with crypto (and certainly with alts), is that the project will actually set the value of Isracoin at 1 ILS (roughly $0.3) which will help a lot in establishing a commerce based value for the coin.

2. We still have the business directory and restructuring of the business registration system in development. It is taking longer than we planned, but that's just the reality of things. Once this is done, we will be issuing press releases on that as well to get media attention.

3. A new wallet is imminent and will contain a cool new feature that will make Isracoin simpler to use for day to day use for the average person. More on that will be released when ready.

4. A really cool project is now being developed by a member of the Israeli ISR community, that will embody some sort of combination of a tipping system and web-wallet, within the FB platform, especially for Isracoin. this is going to be really cool. should be released for beta in the next couple of weeks most likely.

5. A member of the Israeli community is building a site for selling Isracoin via local Fiat (ILS). The site will essentially purchase the coins from the exchanges and sell to the public for local Israeli fiat currency. This is a very, very important step for the project and we hope it will go live within the next 3-4 weeks.

6. Similarly to point 5 above, a special system has been built to work with "Change shops" in Israel where people could step into these currency change shops and exchange cash for Isracoins. There are several thousand such shops in Israel and we feel this could lead to huge spread of the coin in the country. We are now in discussions already with several such shops who are showing interest and hope to be up and running in them soon and spread from there.

There are a few other things in the works, but they are not ready to be discussed yet.

We will announce each of the above things separately and in more detail, once they are ready.

ISR Team.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR ISRACOIN COMMUNITY!
HITBTC HAS JUST ANNOUNCED ISRACOIN AS THE WINNER IN THE LATEST VOTING ROUND!

As you may know, HitBTC is one of the larger volume exchanges that also has USD/EUR fiat.
This is a really big deal for Isracoin, as it is the first major fiat exchange to list Isracoin!

We believe great things are ahead and have a bunch more good news and updates coming up!

That is actually a very good question.
Perhaps we should start sending them support tickets asking exactly that...

Isracoin is very, very much alive.
We are working and developing infrastructure, while keeping quiet on the media side at the moment (especially in Israel) because of all the craziness that has been going on in the past 6-7 weeks or so. There's just a time and a place for things, and this wasn't it.

We expect to provide updates this week on what is in the works.

If all remains quiet and things go back to normal, we hope to announce a few things starting next week.
There are several developments going on at the same time but no media or public announcement in the past few weeks due to the situation.

Fingers crossed...

A new pool has just opened for Isracoin:

https://www.minep.it/pool/ISRA/

Thanks guys and welcome to our community!

Adding your pool to our lists.