Cryptocurrency system from the fiqh perspective: The case of bitcoin

Throughout the history of mankind, money has changed form, been clad in myriad shapes from sea stones to domestic fowls, and then been made of the precious metals, particularly gold. Despite the popularity of gold as a means of exchange throughout the world, its coining and circulation has decreased in time, and in its lieu, people have, on an if-and-when-needed basis, produced and used paper currency. Money, after its paper form, entering into the computer environment and being transferred through electronic devices, many a derivative thereof has been created in these environments. Of these, some has been produced as representative money that enables the representation of state-issued money in the digital environment, while some has been produced absent the control of any authority and found renown with the name crypto-currency among its users. In this study, Bitcoin — launched in 2009 and the first and best known software of what is termed as cryptocurrency, the global trade volume of which has, to this day, reached a billion dollars — was addressed, and from the perspective of Islamic law (Fiqh), following the treatment of the concept of money, the (legal) status of crypto software, in Bitcoin's case, was assessed.