On July 19, we had reported that Stellar blockchain network received Sharia compliance certificate. Today, the Bahrain Central Bank (CBB) has approved the Stellar.org project to be Sharia compliant. This means that under the supervision of the central bank, Stellar will be able to perform a Sharia certification.
Furthermore, all the projects undertaken by Stellar and its subsidiaries are considered to be Sharia compliant automatically. The certification also clears the path for interaction between the Stellar project and the Islamic faith.
This is considered to be a major development as the cryptocurrency sector faces several uncertainties. The complexity only increases when seen through the vision of Islam as the Stellar project, similar to other blockchain projects, is unregulated.
The Islamic world, by and large, looks at blockchain technology in a positive way. Therefore, the community is expected to encourage the development as long as the national and Islamic laws are precisely followed.
A Stellar spokesperson, according to the News of Bahrain, said
“We advance our mission of financial access and inclusion by obtaining a Sharia compliance certification for the Stellar technology and network. The Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), a leading international Sharia advisory agency licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, has reviewed the properties and applications of Stellar and has promulgated guidance and guidelines that enable Sharia compliant applications of Stellar technology in Islamic financial institutions.”
The spokesperson further stated
“Stellar is the first distributed ledger protocol to receive Sharia compliance certification in the money transfer and asset tokenisation space. Additionally, the Sharia compliance certification extends to applications and usages of lumens (XLM).”
The scenario is extremely encouraging for Stellar as it indicates to the people of Bahrain that this is an approved cryptocurrency and blockchain. So, developers and enterprises in Bahrain need not have any hesitations or doubts while dealing with the Stellar network. Furthermore, it has major implications in the Islamic world. Stellar has now established a blockchain standard for dealing with Islamic countries.
So, there is a great expectation among the crypto community that this will eventually lead to a number of projects that will use Stellar network. With a focus on making cross border payments simpler and cost effective, Sharia compliance could land Stellar in big projects in the months ahead.
