The Halal Guide to Working in Crypto
Most people’s involvement in crypto so far has been restricted to simply investing in the tokens. However, this isn’t the only way to engage with crypto. In fact, the crypto industry offers potentially exciting and rewarding career options. In this article, we are going to explore working in crypto and give you advice on the types of jobs and companies that can offer a halal and lucrative career.
Why a Muslim presence in crypto is important
To put it simply, we need to have a seat at the table. Being at the forefront of one of the most innovative industries allows us to help to shape the world in line with our religious values. Having Muslims in crypto can usher projects towards halal offerings that can create genuine value to our Ummah and the general public.
Another point: if we want to establish our own projects in the space as a community, having Muslims with first-hand experience of the sector is a must.
Pros and cons of a crypto career
Pros
- Quicker progression – the industry is still quite new so the opportunities to progress are greater and quicker than they would be in other established industries.
- Lucrative – the pay on offer could be great, particularly if you can tie your pay or bonuses to the performance of your token. You could also be paid in crypto but please be prepared for the volatility that comes with them. Any money you are not prepared to hold for the long term should be converted to either stablecoins or fiat currencies.
- Flexibility – many roles will be remotely based so you can work from wherever you please. You could also potentially do freelance work as a side hustle instead of making it your main job.
- Development – working in crypto will be fast-paced and challenging which can accelerate your development as a professional.
- Valuable experience – having crypto experience is becoming highly sought out by many major mainstream companies. For example, the likes of Amazon and Apple have been looking for people with crypto experience to help them tap into the crypto space[1]. This offers you a clear route back into more mainstream industries. The other option could be to take your newfound knowledge and skills and do something entrepreneurial with it.
- Expertise – like any early adopter of an industry, you become known as an expert in that space because you have spent a lot of time in it. At this point, anyone who has been in crypto for 5 years is basically a grandfather of crypto. So you can quickly rise to the top of an early space.
Cons
- Volatility – the space is very volatile, and many projects could go underwater in a bear market. This is a serious risk so you should make sure you look at projects with a genuine use case and enough funding to see them through a bear market.
- Lots of responsibility – the pace of development is rapid and with many projects are rushing to make the most out of a bull market, it is very likely that you’d be doing a lot of work across different areas. This can be a good thing though for the right type of person.
- Minefield of projects – there are many overhyped projects as well as some outright scams, so you must make sure you do your due diligence to stay clear of these.
- Uncertain – it goes without saying that the crypto industry is nowhere near as certain as other established industries.
A look at the different job and company types available and their shariah analysis
Projects
Let’s start with the types of projects that you want to avoid. This is the main consideration when looking for halal jobs in crypto. You want to avoid projects where:
- the technology underpinning the project intrinsically linked to a haram transaction (e.g. interest-based lending)
- the ecosystem that they are creating is so inextricably tied up with illicit/immoral activities that it would be inappropriate to support such an ecosystem (e.g. a project geared solely towards gambling)
For more on what makes a job haram check out this article. Another helpful resource would be our Halal Crypto List where we have given an initial shariah view on the top 50 projects.
Job roles
Say you find a role that looks permissible, what job types are available to you? If the activities of the company are permissible, then most jobs will be fine if they are not doing something inherently impermissible.
Here are some common job roles available in the crypto space:
- Blockchain and software developer
- Blockchain researcher
- Marketing
- Community manager
- Legal, tax and accounting roles
- Business development / sales
- Product designer
For any grey areas it’s best to speak directly to a local trusted scholar or you could try our Fatwa Forum to get an opinion from an expert Islamic finance mufti.
How to find crypto jobs
There are two main ways to find crypto jobs:
- Job boards. Look for crypto specific job boards. https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/, https://crypto.jobs/ and https://cryptojobslist.com/ are three such job boards. https://angel.co/ is a board that covers all startups but will also have access to crypto related projects. These boards can also give you a good flavour as to the types of roles that are currently in demand.
- The other way is to go direct to projects that you are interested in. Their websites will have a careers section detailing any available jobs or have instructions on how you can contact them.
Final words
Working in the crypto industry gives you another route to gain exposure to crypto and potentially supercharge your career in the process. You want to have a good level of understanding of the crypto space and the underlying technologies used. It’s best to stick to the more established projects and make sure to do your due diligence to verify any opportunities presented to you. Don’t just limit yourself to projects that have a token. Explore adjacent companies that operate in the crypto space. These could be companies that develop custody solutions, death planning or provide market analysis.
To checkout more of our crypto related content, head over here.
[1] https://insights.dice.com/2021/08/19/walmart-apple-amazon-getting-interested-in-cryptocurrency-experts/
