Halal micro-financing for Muslims using Bitcoin

Micro-financing through bitcoin may be ‘halal’ because cryptocurrency doesn’t incur interest


Web Desk July 31, 2015
DESIGN: KIRAN SHAHID

A developer has come up with a micro-financing solution for Muslims using bitcoin-based service.

Matthew Joseph Martin, a 30-year-old developer, launched his service called 'Blossom' in 2014 which gathers money from several individual investors and then invests it in a profit-sharing model. The investors then get a share of the profits from the companies in which their money had been invested.

Read: Seattle mayor pushes for Sharia-compliant financing

Islamic law prohibits taking interest-bearing loans, but micro-financing through bitcoin may be ‘halal’ because cryptocurrency doesn’t incur interest.

The money is moved by 'Blossom' electronically which enables a fast, verified and safe transfer. To date, Blossom has provided micro-financing to 200 businesses.

Martin, who has previously worked with finance technology start-ups Boku and Xoom, said, “I was running a small business on the side and I had a cash flow issue. Some of my non-Muslim advisers suggested to just get a loan, but I knew interest-based loans are not allowed in Islam. So I started researching sharia finance. After understanding what Islam advocates as a mode of financing, I started researching what exists in the market today.”

His research showed him that the over 220 million Muslims in Indonesia did not have any kind of micro-financing that could be considered halal. Further, he found that only 8% of financial products in Indonesia were compliant with Islamic law.

Read: Restructuring: SECP chief backs Islamic financing

“I realised this unserved need is a huge problem that needs to be solved. My background is in financial technology doing payments and remittance, so my experience building similar products was really an asset to help solve the problem,” Martin said.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin News Service

COMMENTS (1)

urdubit | 8 years ago | Reply its about time :)
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