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Is the Bitcoin internet currency halal, considering the fact that it has no intrinsic value and is almost randomly mined? There is chance (?) and hence could be interpreted as gambling. Excessive computational power is required to increase the chances of mining a coin.

Bitcoin is a new kind of money. It's the first decentralized electronic currency not controlled by a single organization or government. It's an open source project, and it is used by more than 100,000 people. All over the world people are trading hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin every day with no middle man and no credit card companies. It's a startup currency which has never happened before. -- osmosis, bitcoin.SE

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  • IMHO this is not gambling - you invest computational power and get a "digital currency" in exchange... from my POV it is as halal as the Euro for example (most Euros are only digital and generated by the ECB)... but I am no scholar...
    – Yahia
    Apr 14, 2013 at 18:03
  • You can buy bitcoins with paper money too.
    – oshirowanen
    Apr 14, 2013 at 18:25
  • You might want to check my post I made about bitcoin and fiat money: ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?376630-Bitcoin-Fiat-and-Islam
    – user3273
    Sep 27, 2013 at 15:58
  • @sod6 interesting article ,can you post the summary relvant to this question as an answer
    – user940
    Sep 28, 2013 at 8:36
  • have you all ever played Japanese smartphone games ? they integrate so much gambling in there but they are smart in covering it. their people all said it's not gambling. but you can see it has the gambling traits! and many players wasted many on their money just for the inexistent data! how crazy is this? I don't know much about bitcoins but I think bitcoin resemble that.
    – kate
    Feb 23, 2016 at 0:39

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First let's get some misconceptions out of the way.

Is BitCoin mining chance based?

No. BitCoin mining is a cryptographic process that has a finite, well defined and deterministic. It does require a lot of computational power, but there is no luck involved. If it was luck based, then there would be a chance (however small) for your tiny ARM processor to find a BitCoin every now and then. That's not true.

Do BitCoins have an intrinsic value?

Yes they do. As you've noted, mining BitCoin requires a lot of computational power and that of course includes the infrastructure behind it (equipment, time, electricity ... etc). That alone gives it value. Also, the fact that people are willing to buy it gives it value.

Think of diamonds. They definitely have value. It's not because they are rare (diamonds are much more prevalent than people are lead to believe), but because the market gives it value.

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    "If it was luck based, then there would be a chance (however small) for your tiny ARM processor to find a BitCoin every now and then. That's not true." That is exactly how bitcoin mining works. It's also a random process.
    – G. Bach
    Jan 18, 2017 at 11:41

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