Syariah Review About Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables payments in a decentralized peer to peer network empowered and approved by users. There is no central authority or intermediary controlling it. This currency is digital in form and storage. Bitcoin can be used to purchase various services such as games to website hosting. There are several ways to get bitcoins, namely the first, buy bitcoins directly by exchanging the official currency for bitcoins. In Indonesia one can exchange bitcoin through several sites such as Bitcoin.co.id, Luno, Indodax, Coin base. Second, someone can get bitcoin by mining (Minner) and verifying bitcoin mining transactions. When someone manages to do this, the system will award bitcoins. Third, someone can offer services or goods to other people who have bitcoins and accept bitcoin payments.

However, the circulation of bitcoin as a form of currency still has a lot of debate among scholars and experts, and bitcoin itself as a form of currency still requires a lot of consideration in terms of its benefits and harms. Some sharia views regarding bitcoin are as follows:

1. Wealth

Recognized by sharia as valuable and useful, identifiable, transferable, possessable. From these criteria bitcoin cannot be categorized as a commodity because in Islam wealth must also have intrinsic value that can be benefited.

2. Currency 

Something can be defined as money if it has three functions of money, namely as a general medium of exchange (Medium Of Change), as a unit of account (Unit Of Account), and money as a means of storing value (Means of Payments).57 From the criteria Bitcoin is not included as a commodity because money must be generally accepted, as a store of value, as a unit of account, as a medium of exchange. In bitcoin there is no element of legal tender (General Tender). The point is that tenders are awarded by the government with the aim of regulating inflation and deflation which can harm the value of the currency and the underlying purchasing power.

3. Financial Assets

Financial assets are the resources over which property rights are exercised and from which economic benefits can flow to owners. The characteristics of financial assets are:

a. Value depends on the time of the price.

b. Recognized by sharia as something valuable.

c. Transferable.

d. Can be owned.

e. Store values.

From these criteria bitcoin cannot be categorized as a commodity because in financial assets it must be supported by basic assets/investment activities according to sharia