German FinTech Launches Sharia Compliant Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

“We conferred with Islamic scholars whether this is permissible before deciding to design the token. We did our best to make Caiz Islamic-compliant, but we also wanted to build an inclusive product that can be used by everyone.”

The Mena region is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency market in the world, accounting for 9.2 percent of global digital currency transactions from July 2021 to June 2022, according to a report this month from blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

About 22 percent of the GCC’s population is unbanked, compared with 60 percent in North Africa, according to a report by consultancy Strategy &.

Seventy-nine percent of young adults in the Mena region are unbanked and 72 percent of the poorest residents could benefit from financial inclusion, according to the Arab Monetary Fund.

FinTech identified remittances as one of the biggest pain points for migrant communities, not only in the Islamic world but also globally.

“The strongest use cases for Caizcoin are not in the US or Europe, where everyone has a bank account. Instead, they are unbanked and underbanked users in developing countries where there is less penetration of financial services,” Hansen said.

“They can download the app, buy Caiz and send it to a recipient, who can use it in our ecosystem for different purposes or redeem it in a local currency.”

The company’s biggest markets are in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as well as migrants in Europe and Latin America.

Cryptocurrencies are usually available on decentralized exchanges, where users deal with unknown counterparties and unknown risks.

However, Caizcoin will operate in an ecosystem where there will be “checks and balances” for all wallet holders. Only someone who is vetted and vetted can enter the system, Hansen said.

With its “know your customer” principle, Caizcoin does not support partnerships with industries prohibited in Islam, such as alcohol, drugs, gambling and pornography.

The company, which currently has a marketing office in the UAE, is also building the token on a custom blockchain.

“We’re not building a coin on top of Ethereum, for example. We provided an underlying technology, the Stellar chain, in a way that allows us to build this from the ground up,” Hansen said.

The founders of Caizcoin will also engage in charitable activities and champion social causes. For example, Caiz Development recently sponsored the Euro sculpture in Frankfurt, Germany.

The FinTech company also plans to build soccer academies for children in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Caiz Development will set up its custom-designed blockchain and application programming interface to connect it with financial service providers, banks and payment gateways in the first quarter of 2023.

“We want a Caiz wallet and an app so people can access the ecosystem without a bank account, and purely from their mobile phone,” Hansen said.

Caizcoin is still in the fundraising stage.

“Although we have done private sales, we will launch trading on many exchanges to expand fundraising for further expansion of the coin this year,” Hansen said.

“This will still be on the Ethereum chain and we will switch to the Stellar blockchain in January or February.”

Currently, Caizcoin is available on five exchanges, including P2Pb2b, BigOne, Biconomy and Bittrex.

“Anyone who already has Caiz from the pre-sale can deposit the coins there. When market conditions stabilize, we will give people access to the stock exchanges, says Hansen.

The company will approach one or two top-level exchanges either this year or next year, he said.

The developer is also set to launch an Islamic-friendly alternative to staking in a few weeks in collaboration with an exchange.

Staking is a way to generate passive income while you wait for cryptocurrency assets to increase in value.

Deposited coins are similar to interest-bearing savings accounts or bonds, as they all provide interest income on an initial investment.

Updated: 21 October 2022 at 07.23