Bitcoin’s status in the Islamic community has been widely debated, with some saying it’s haram as others argue that it depends on how it’s used.
For instance, it prohibits interest on loans, Mughal, who is the CEO of the AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics, added.
This has seen many claiming to be Shariah-compliant to target Islamic investors, but as Zahid Mir told the audience, most of these are not halal projects but are just using marketing tactics to make quick bucks.
However, “just because you’re a halal project doesn’t mean that suddenly you’re going to be successful,” Khalid Howladar warned.
Having worked with over five dozen banks while at Moody’s, Howladar believes that the Islamic banking and financial system as a whole could greatly benefit from blockchain.
There has always been the ‘yes to blockchain, but no to crypto,’ argument, and more so in the Islamic community.
Habib is an Islamic finance expert who currently serves as the chairman of the Shariah Governance Board and is also the co-founder of Shariah Experts.
For Muslims, identifying which projects are halal and which ones are only posing as halal to pool in investors can be a tedious undertaking.
Howladar has a different view.
He sees huge potential in Islamic DeFi, which in its current state, accounts for near-zero percentage of the total DeFi market.