Ethereum Foundation Heads for Middle Eastern Countries in the Hope of a…
The head of special projects Ethereum Foundation Virgil Griffith said that his organization begins to cooperate with financial experts in the Middle East, trying to show them that the second largest cryptocurrency is functioning in accordance with Islamic law, writes CoinDesk. This step is seen as an attempt to attract funding from local wealthy families.
“My job is to keep rolling dice,” Griffith told CoinDesk about work to certify ethereum’s Sharia compliance. “Probably nothing will happen. But there’s a hypothetical case where say, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund invests, like, a trillion dollars [in ethereum projects], which would be a real boon. That would be really great.”
Finance expert Wan Hafizi Halim said his company had prepared a document stating that Ethereum smart contracts could comply with Islamic banking rules. The work was carried out on behalf of the Ethereum Foundation.
“What we did with ethereum was just to provide the guidelines,” he said — “Any companies that wish to fundraise in Muslim countries, they can also approach Sharia scholars to assess their projects to see if they are compliant from end-to-end. … With the Sharia certification they obtain, that could provide some clarities and convince Muslim investors to participate and invest.”
A trader from Saudi Arabia, on condition of anonymity, said that local leaders are interested in using Ethereum for “national projects that will help the economy.”
“Most blockchain development here happens on ethereum,” he said. “People are still pretty cautious and only testing things out.”
Ethereum-studio ConsenSys is also trying to build relationships with local authorities. According to the source, Saudi sovereign fund PIF is negotiating with the company, but nothing is known about direct investments in Ethereum projects.
Author: Marko Vidrih
Published at Wed, 03 Jul 2019 21:49:48 +0000
