Shari'ah view on monetary status of bitcoin

Abstract EN

It may surprise some that Imam Malik (93-187 A.H.) said, “If a social consensus were established to have animal skins minted as the medium of exchange for transactions, I would approve it and apply the rules of ribā in exchanging them against gold and silver.” Although this ruling is about a hypothetical case, it indicates classical juristic thinking about the nature of money: that anything can become currency if it is widely or universally accepted by people.

Therefore, as long as a commodity is durable and can perform the functions of money—whose most outstanding features are that is a medium of exchange, unit of account (measurement of value) and store of value—then it is accepted as a currency.