The Islamic Research and Training Institute, the research arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group, signed an agreement with Ateon to build a Blockchain-based financial product that can potentially be used to support development and financial inclusion in IsDB member countries.
Ateon, a member of Alhamrani Group Holding in Saudi Arabia, is a specialized consultancy in financial technology (FinTech), will be working on this project with SettleMint, a Belgium-based software company with rich experience in developing Blockchain applications for financial institutions.
The three parties will be working on the first of its kind use case using Blockchain’s smart contracts to create Sharia compliant financial products to support the development in IsDB member countries.
From an Islamic perspective, money should be transparent, stable, and trustworthy. Blockchain technologies are able, in principle, to serve these objectives in a robust and cost-effective manner.
Blockchain smart contracts enable the automation of the entire contractual process for Islamic institutions, alleviating the additional administrative and legal complexities and redundancies associated with Sharia compliant financial products. Not only that, smart contracts are easy to verify, immutable and secure.
The International Fiqh Academy has approved contracting through electronic means since 1990.
