Bitcoin can be the “most Islamic form of money ever invented," a conference in Abu Dhabi has heard.

Islam permits the exchange of anything perceived as money at spot value, which applies to Bitcoin, speakers argued.

Abu Dhabi: Bitcoin can be the “most Islamic form of money ever invented,” a conference in the capital has heard.

Islam permits the exchange of anything perceived as money at spot value, which applies to Bitcoin, speakers argued.

According to the panel, anti-bitcoin Muslim scholars say that money has to be of intrinsic value and exchanged hand in hand to be halal, citing a hadith by Prophet Mohammed which says: “Gold is to be paid for by gold, silver by silver, wheat by wheat, barley by barley, dates by dates, and salt by salt, like for like and equal for equal, payment being made hand to hand. If these classes differ, then sell as you wish if payment is made hand to hand.”

“But people often misinterpret this hadith thinking that these are the only types of money that should be exchanged,” said Harris Irfan, CEO of Cordoba Capital Markets, addressing the Bitcoin Mena conference.

“In fact, what it says is that things that are perceived as money should be exchanged hand in hand at spot value, not at an interpreted future value.”

Saifedean Ammous, an economist, author and Bitcoin advocate, agreed that the hadith does not necessarily mean “hand in hand in its literal sense, but it refers to spot trading - a final cash settlement or transaction” that both sides agree on the value of at the time of the exchange.

On the other hand, regularly issued cash is entirely built on the process of riba (non-Islamically interest), some speakers said, but people don’t think of it as religiously forbidden because it used to be the only means of monetary exchange.

“Selling the time value of money is forbidden in Islam, and most people just take that for granted assuming it is an aspect of Islam that is outdated because we cannot live without fiat money in the modern world,” said Ammous.

Fiat money gets created when a new loan is issued, which means it is necessary for money to go through the process of riba to come to existence, “but this is the sort of thing that most people don’t think of because it is so prevalent around us and the harm from not using it is far worse” he added.

Another expert said the concept of Islamic banking itself is not completely independent of interest-infused money.

Irfan said: “All we are doing is reverse engineering, conventional debt based on fiat money and fractional reserve banking; every time an Islamic bank enters into a financing contract with a customer, it is creating new money in the exact same way as a normal bank creates money.”

He said some Islamic scholars deem Bitcoin haram because it is not backed by governments and does not have intrinsic value. “But nothing has intrinsic value, it is subjective, we give things value," he added.

He further explained: “There was a point in time when oil was negative value, you had to pay people to take it away from your land so you can build on it, now it is extremely valuable, but nothing intrinsic to oil has changed, it is still a liquid substance.”

Bitcoin leaves no room for ambiguity in ownership, he added, unlike fiat money where bankers are double spending the money by making it available to the lender and borrower at the same time.

Irfan said many claim that Bitcoins are volatile, however, fiat money is even more volatile with banks acting like gatekeepers to people’s money.

Individuals could also face complications when withdrawing large amounts of their money from banks, or when trying to transfer to hot spots.

“The only way I can send money to Gaza for medicines and aid on the ground is through Bitcoin right now, every time I’ve tried to send it through normal banking rails it gets blocked in some way; that is why Bitcoin is more real money than anything else we have in the world right now,” said Irfan.

There were many instances in history when scholars ‘were taking the easy way out’ and tagging new innovations as haram.

An example was when the internet came along and was at first considered haram, said Ammous. In the past, some even considered photography to be religiously forbidden. However, as time passed and those inventions became more prevalent, the negative notion disappeared, and it became widely acceptable.

“The Muslim world is missing out on the Bitcoin revolution,” he said.

Benefiting from Bitcoin is massively influenced by when the person starts to purchase it.

“Ten years ago, one was able to buy 100,000 Satoshis per dollar, today, you can get 1,000 Satoshis per dollar - so it is an entirely different user experience in terms of when you start.

“It’s been 10 years that I’ve been hearing people issuing fatwas that Bitcoin is haram and if we are here 10 years later, what will happen? Bitcoin price would have gone up by a hundred-fold and the person who wants to get into Bitcoin today, is going