Marhaba: Making cryptocurrency accessible for Muslims!

Intro

The Muzdex ‘Deep Dive Series’ is a series of Q&As where we sit-down with unique individuals in the Muslim space to explore the problems they’re solving for the Muslim community, what’s unique about their solutions and what’s next in their journey.

In the first instalment of this series, we sat down with Deniz Dalkilic, Chief Technology Officer at Marhaba. Marhaba is the world’s first halal decentralized finance ecosystem platform focused on ethical, sustainable and halal cryptocurrency opportunities. Marhaba recently raised $5.5 million in seed funding to fuel their continued expansion as they grow from strength-to-strength. 

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Q: Why did you set-up Marhaba?

I’ve been in the crypto space for six years now and over time I’ve realised we need to onboard more Muslims into the world of cryptocurrency. There is money to be made in Crypto but Muslims are often sceptical because there are a lot of scammers in this space, mostly due to the absence of regulations. 

We want to build a platform where you don’t have to trust us, you just have to trust the code. We make sure everything’s transparent and take away the complexities of Sharia for users with our dedicated Sharia team. We knew that if you combine great technology with the Sharia side of things taken care of, we would have something that’s going to be very appealing for the Muslim community. 

Once we had the idea and put the team together, it was a no brainer, we had to get more Muslims in this space so that we as Muslims can take advantage of the golden opportunities and potential returns in this space.

Q: Are Marhaba pioneers in this space?

Yes, we are the first sharia compliant platform and are the leaders in this space! There are a few other platforms but if you check-out their website and team, it’s all very ambiguous and there’s no transparency. You don’t know who their Sharia team is, you don’t know how they come up with decisions and you can’t tell what they’re building or what the technical detail is. 

If you compare that to what we’re doing, our white paper covers 4 out of the 8 products we’re building in Phase 1 and it’s already at 55 pages because of the technical depth we go into! We have also created and posted a Sharia paper which is the first in this space to outline very specific things about crypto and cover every detail you can think of that is important to a Muslim. 

Q: What’s the ambition for Marhaba?

I joined about 8 months ago and our team of 4 is now a team of 20! Our aim is that when you say Halal crypto, we are the first name that comes to mind. We want to be the household name in Crypto, especially if it’s a Muslim household. Our vision is to onboard as many Muslims as possible into Crypto and get them involved because I genuinely believe it’s a golden opportunity for all of us.

Q: For people that want to get involved, is there a barrier to entry?

No! We take care of the tech side completely and the only barrier to entry is the belief that Crypto is not just hype and it’s not going to disappear overnight.

Q: What’s the next thing coming up for Marhaba?

The next thing is the Sahal Wallet. This is a non-custodial mobile wallet to allow you to store, receive and sell sharia-compliant tokens. We have a sharia-compliant list which our sharia team has reviewed, there are thousands for us to review but currently there are around 60 currencies which we have approved as sharia compliant which you can store, trade, and sell in the Sahal Wallet. 

Then the next product after that is a killer product in my opinion! It will allow individuals to earn a passive income through Crypto to generate 5-15% a year with minimal risk.