Why Bitcoin is Set to Take Off in the Muslim World

Muslims make up 23% of the world's population and are the fastest growing religion on the planet, this fact is going to benefit the global crypto-asset marketcap for two reasons: Islamic law and population trends.

Before we get into the reasons for my thesis let me introduce myself: I am a young Muslim who was born and raised in the USA to a relatively religious Muslim family living in Michigan, close to that famous city of Dearborn.

Let's look at the first reason: Sharia law and it's restriction on ribaa (interest). Islamic banking laws according to majority consensus interpretation of Quranic verses have a strict prohibition on collecting, paying or participating in financial systems that rely on interest. This splits the worldwide Islamic population in two: Muslims begrudgingly willing to participate in the modern banking system because they see no choice and Muslims who refuse to participate or who seek out alternatives to modern banking. I have seen both groups seek out some solution to their moral and financial quandary. Muslims living in the west seek out many ways of trying to be compliant with Islamic law whether its inventing alternative "Islamically compliant" mortgages, "Islamic banking" or "Sharia compliant investment funds." There has been an explosion in the growth of Sharia compliant financial products in recent years to reflect a growing Muslims professional class in the West who shun regular banking and investment models. I have seen many Muslims including my own family some who live here and some who live overseas refuse to participate in the banking system or invest in stocks and just put everything they own into physical gold stashed in not so secure locations with the hope that it will preserve their wealth and grow it.

Bitcoin could be a solution to this quandary. Bitcoin does not rely on fractional reserve banking, you know the Bitcoin you own in your wallet (if you control the private keys) is not being loaned out to charge interest to others and you know there will always be that many bitcoin resting in your account rather than circulating across the economy making others money without your permission. This alone makes bitcoin largely compliant with Islamic banking laws and an attractive investment to a relatively wealthy Muslim sitting in Dubai, Jakarta, Tehran, Istanbul, etc who were always a bit regretful that they are participating in a banking system that is not compliant with Islamic law. The vast majority of the Muslim world is not aware of this yet, and the top 5% of wealthiest Muslims may just now be paying attention to bitcoin with all the media attention yet still not be willing to take the risk in a relatively new investment scheme.

With all the potential of bitcoin in the Muslim world and its compliance with Islamic law it is important to note that many of the older Muslims do not and may never know about bitcoin or are misinformed about crypto-assets. There have been several Islamic scholars linked to corrupt repressive regimes (aka Al-Azhar scholars in Egypt) that have issued rulings against bitcoin either because they refuse to read up on it and fear what that don't understand or are doing the bidding of said corrupt government because their government fears currency decentralization. This is where demographic trends come in because while older Muslims and corrupt scholars linked to corrupt regimes may fear the crypto-asset millennial Muslims are looking for financial freedom.

Islam is the world's fastest growing religion and the Muslim world has a relatively young population compared to almost any other population subset. This is a millennial population which has seen war, economic sanctions, terrorism and the collapse of some nation-states. It is also a young population who has grown up in the age of twitter, snapchat, cell phones and the internet. If you were a young Muslim in Mosul, Iraq just a few years ago you would have woken up to news that a new gang called ISIS raided your bank and your entire wealth has dissipated overnight. You would have spent years not being able to participate in the global financial system and lost investment potential over time because of war and the collapse of your government. You would have seen your peers in the western world become wealthy and happy with the notion that their banking system is safe from collapse. Enter bitcoin, an alternative crypto-asset that seems to keep growing, has massive potential and most importantly can keep your wealth from being stolen by corrupt governments, terrorists, economic mismanagement or a coup.

Once the secret is out and more and more Muslims see the compliance and potential in bitcoin expect the marketcap to reflect this explosion in interest and participation in the blockchain network. A quarter of the world's population, its fastest growing subset is just waking up to the potential of bitcoin. I have been asked by Muslim friends and family and others who I don't even know from overseas Muslim countries about how to start a coinbase account, an ether wallet, what private keys are etc. I see a potential sleeping giant here who is just now awakening to a solution to many of its financial and moral issues.