One of the cool things about the cryptospace has always been its potential for personalization. So many things in life bear the illusion of choice, but what we truly have is a choice between predetermined options. Governments have always played an outsized role in what was available to us for choosing, whether through safety regulations (vehicles, lead-based paint, Burger King Pokeballs), taxes on the production, importation, sale, or possession of goods (Tobacco, payroll, steel, real estate, and basically anything you purchase), bans or prohibitions on the transactions or possession of items (raw milk, absinthe, "ballistic knives" in California, lawn darts, ivory, cigars from Cuba, alcoholic energy drinks, and British Cadbury chocolate, because "capitalism"), or on a much larger scale even through subsidies (read: extra money) to certain sectors or industries.
Crypto ain't standin' for none of that.
There are so many options in crypto that no matter what it is that you want, somebody has or is developing a solution for you.
Want to pay your rent --or your workers-- in bitcoin? You can do that.
Want to invest a few bucks and watch it balloon into house-buying money? Totally possible.
Want to get compensated for your steps in satoshis? Geospatial data in ERC-20? Internet browsing? Done.
Want to own a fractional share in a real estate investment? Famous artwork? Rare vintage of wine? The world is your oyster.
Want to own a GIF of a dog wiping its butt on the carpet? Well if you're unable to find it or afford it, you can mint one for yourself using pipeflare.io's NFT Marketplace, where it is literally as simple as uploading the file you want to make into an NFT.
As the realization of the true impact of our behavior as a species begins to dawn upon our collective consciousness, you can elect to fill your wallets with only those tokens or coins that are "green," or carbon-neutral, or mined using geothermal energy from a volcano. You can earn crypto by planting trees.
With all these options based on personal priorities, it seems only natural that through MRHB DeFi any of us can choose to participate in the cryptospace in a way that is consistent with our spiritual and cultural beliefs.
As someone who lives and was raised in the western world, I have watched the members of my society attempt to define themselves using material goods. Especially since the advent of social media, people consider “who you are” to be displayed to the world by your clothes, your shoes, what car you drive or even if you drive, what zip code you live in, what area code your phone number has, what language or combination of languages or type of creole you speak, how you do your hair, how many credit cards you have, or whether your diamond engagement ring cost 3x your monthly salary… Personally, I think it’s all bullshit, but I also respect your right to choose, and I revere that it is that choice ability that generated the choice plethora that now lets me pick my favorite everything based on the specific combination of features that I want.
I believe this situation of outward-expression-of-inner-values has come about in the western world in part due to a void where major religion used to be. If a person’s mind and all their choices are led by a set of beliefs that have been handed down through their family and shared culture with all their neighbors and fellow community members, they are probably less likely to feel the need to express their beliefs outwardly through their choices. If everyone placed equal value on green or sustainable living, mining bitcoin via geothermal energy would not be newsworthy, as it would be more commonplace.
Similarly, the advent of belief-based services like Acorns’ “ESG portfolio” or halal crypto resources like MRHBDeFi will lead to a far greater variety in the exchanges and coins that help users adhere to their own beliefs. We are at a pivot point, at which the powerful coding and algorithms of the modern world will aid in truly “voting with our wallets” in a way that was previously made less impactful (or at the very least, drawn out unnecessarily by the glacial nature of the product development cycle). In the meantime, this one platform is probably going to have a virtual monopoly on the Muslim cryptospace.
Hopefully it will serve to bring some options to people in countries and cultures where crypto is otherwise haram, and contribute to the conversation positively.
If you’re looking for good free crypto, check out my favorites and faucets.
