What is MRHB DeFi?
Marhaba DeFi is a new, exciting and possibly the first Sharia Compliant Decentralised Finance project, but what makes it different to other DeFi offerings? Marhaba ($MRHB), meaning 'welcome' in Arabic touts itself as a 'DeFi to bridge the gap between the Muslim Community and the Blockchain world'. An interesting proposition, considering the growing demographic of Muslims and the recent controversies regarding Indonesia's declaration that Bitcoin ($BTC) is haram.
If Bitcoin and DeFi haram and what makes Marhaba DeFi system any different?
Indonesia had already announced that Bitcoin is banned in the country way back in February of 2014 when you could become a whole coiner for less than 600 dollars. I get the feeling that this was largely ignored by the more than 210 million-strong population. I wonder if the reason that it was declared 'haram' was to coerce compliance with a largely ignored rule with the majority 87% Muslim population. Hundreds of millions of people are excluded from the future of finance, and all the benefits of personal freedoms, mobility and prosperity that could bring.
Nearly 25% of people on earth are Muslim, and if other Islamic majority countries follow Indonesia in 'crypto bans', potentially 1.9Bn would be excluded if they complied. This is a vast topic that I am keen to explore in future and greater detail, however, this is not the post for that.
Is Sharia Crypto necessary?
Crypto, unlike traditional finance, has very few barriers to entry. It is a force for good, so initially, I was saddened that crypto projects would need to be divided along the lines of religion. However, looking forward to a geopolitically unstable outlook in the world, snapping up some $MRHB tokens could be a bet, particularly if Western or secular governments go down the route of CBDC issued stable coins. At least with a Sharia-compliant DeFi system in place, perhaps a door will be open to 2Bn folks who would otherwise be technically forbidden. Marhaba will be positioned perfectly in this circumstance to onboard many people.
I'm not sure I understand the argument for why Cryptocurrencies, as they exist today, would be Haram, but if you have any thoughts, I'm happy to read your comments.
What does Marhaba have to offer?
Interestingly a roadmap for the project is available in their white paper https://marhabadefi.com/info-centre.php and contains plans for an entire ecosystem include a Launchpad to develop and bring to market future DeFi projects. Additionally and in order, we can expect them:
- A non-custodial iOS/Android Wallet that will only hold Sharia-compliant tokens
- SouqNFT - An NFT Marketplace
- Liquidity Harvester allowing yield of up to 15%APY (presumably Sharia Compliant)
- Decentralised exchange aggregator
- Lending and borrowing
- DePhi - A platform for donating to charity
Inclusivity
I was glad to see that the project is 'Muslim also' rather than 'Muslim only'. If you would like to get your hands on some Governance tokens in the early days of this interesting project, you can register from the 14th November 2021 at https://marhabadefi.com/
