Drawing from his background in computer science, business and a decade of blockchain experience, Max Freeman, the founder and CEO of Epicenter Labs, argued that while digital assets hold promise, the majority pose significant risks to both wealth and faith.
He began by noting that most cryptocurrencies are unsuitable for Islamic investors. The first key distinction lies in consensus mechanisms:
- Proof of Work (PoW), used by Bitcoin and Epic Cash, is acceptable since it avoids interest-based rewards.
- Proof of Stake (PoS), used by Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and others, inherently relies on interest (staking yields) and is therefore impermissible under Shariah law.
The second filter concerns immutability and contractual fairness. In systems like Bitcoin, the rules are fixed and cannot be altered, ensuring fairness. In contrast, assets like Ripple (XRP) allow centralized authorities to change the rules, creating “excessive uncertainty” and invalidating them from an Islamic perspective.
The third criterion is utility. Meme coins such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe are gambling instruments with no intrinsic purpose. While entertaining for some, they are deemed Haram, as they result in wealth destruction and lack real-world utility.
He further critiqued stablecoins such as Tether and Circle, arguing that because they are backed by the US dollar – which itself is rooted in interest-bearing debt – they cannot be considered Halal. This narrows the field substantially, leaving Bitcoin and Epic Cash as the main contenders.
Originally envisioned as P2P money, Bitcoin has evolved primarily into a speculative store of value. Transaction fees can reach US$100, excluding billions of people from usage, while institutional custody has led to centralization and ties to interest-based systems. Mining Bitcoin also requires expensive, specialized hardware, limiting participation and creating inequality. For these reasons, Max believes Bitcoin has drifted away from its original purpose.
By contrast, Epic Cash seeks to restore Bitcoin’s founding ideals. It uses PoW with an innovation called polyphase mining, which allows ordinary laptops and PCs to participate instead of specialized hardware. This reduces costs, lowers energy consumption, avoids electronic waste and makes mining accessible to billions of devices worldwide. Epic Cash is designed for mass adoption, scalability to billions of daily transactions and true decentralization. It eliminates intermediaries, preserves immutability and prioritizes inclusivity – making it, in Max’s view, both economically viable and Shariah compliant.
