Jurisprudential Investigation into Virtual Money

Virtual money is a new phenomenon which has emerged in modern societies as the virtual world is increasingly gaining momentum. It is not a long time since the idea of virtual money came to existence and became operational, yet various types of virtual currency have managed to gain acceptance and usage in today's market. Although governments have been reluctant to give credence to these currencies, the inventors of virtual currencies and market participants have been struggling to overcome the challenges involved and to come up with innovative solutions in order to provide more desirable and effective services in the hopes of making them more widespread. Correct and technical perception of the nature of the money will be the first step in identifying the regulative rules of Sharia as regards virtual money and its use in the Islamic financial market. This article is to specify the regulative rules of Sharia concerning virtual money through digging deep into the ontology of virtual money and analyzing the phenomenon of "money" with an Islamic jurisprudential approach based on the Credit-based Theory of Money. In view of that, it is essential to dissect virtual money in order to precisely understand its components and the key elements affecting it. These include the nature of virtual money and its base, its characteristics of being private and electronic, and the arrival of virtual money in the real world. The writers of this article believe that the most important consideration that must be given to laying the groundwork for virtual money in today's world money order is the coexistence of real and virtual money .