ثریا جاویدان

Newly emerged events in the world of technology call on jurisconsults to make extra efforts to align them with jurisprudential institutions and dos-and-don’ts and to try to regulate them. One of these technologies is the mining of cryptocurrencies. The present study analyzes the jurisprudential nature of cryptocurrency, using the descriptive-analytical method, in order to determine the ruling on cryptocurrency mining. It is concluded that cryptocurrency mining does not align with the hire contract in terms of the manner of offer (ījāb) and the conditions of contracting parties. It is also different in subject matter from the possession of ownerless property (ḥiyāzat-i mubāḥāt). This occures optional or non-optional while cryptocurrency mining is not. In other words, it is not the case that a number of cryptocurrencies exist for a person to extract using some tools, which would be considered as mining. Rather, the person is given a certain amount of cryptocurrency in exchange for the work they have done. Cryptocurrency mining is also different from the contract of gift (Hibbah), in terms of conditions of the offeror (mujib), the acceptor (qābil), and the act of taking possession (qabż). In the end, cryptocurrency mining can be aligned with the contract of Jiʿālah ʿām. However, even in this case, considering cryptocurrency as Jiʿālah does not legitimize the act. There are several other issues such as the lack of value, the incompetent trades of mining (the state of being Safahī), etc., which may be analyzed in future research.

Mining cryptocurrency is a seemingly new issue that, like other newly emerging issues, should be examined in terms of its correspondence with the criteria of validity of ʻuqūd (contracts) or īqāʻāt (unilateral obligations) in order to determine the opinion of the holy sharīʻah regarding cryptocurrency mining. If some of these criteria are not observed, the exchanges will be invalidated and unreasonable. The power to submit, property, rational interest, ownership, clarity, and definiteness of the ʻiwaḍayn (two sides of the transactions) are among these criteria. In the present study, the criteria mentioned in jurisprudential books regarding the mining of cryptocurrencies were examined, and finally, it was concluded that there are no criteria for the unreasonableness exchange in the mining of cryptocurrencies, in mining cryptocurrencies, ʻiwaḍayn have financial value as an exchange that have many similarities to juʻālah, there is not even a religious obstacle to challenging their financial value, there is the power to submit them, and in terms of meeting the conditions of ownership, having a rational interest and being clear, there is no problem for them.