- Sections
- Bemare Habazak - Rabbis Questions
- Family and Society
- Basics of Financial Laws
1170
Question: I have been learning about bitcoin. Is it considered like money or a shtar (document) for a variety of halachic issues, e.g., marrying a woman, buying property?
Answer: We will not express a view about the value or danger (there are claims of links to money laundering and other criminal activity, dangerous volatility, …) but will look at a few areas in halacha in which determining bitcoin’s status would be significant.
Kiddushin can be accomplished by a groom giving a bride anything of value, whether a currency, a commodity (Kiddushin 2a), or theoretically even a service (see the complication discussed in Kiddushin 63a and Shulchan Aruch, Even Haezer 28:15). If a groom transfers to the bride rights to a debt a third party owes to him, even if done by speech without handing her a shtar, it can still work (Shulchan Aruch ibid. 13). The important thing is that he provides value, as long it is done positively, as opposed to something such as forgiving paymentof a debt (ibid. 10). Even in the latter case, if one says he is marrying her with the benefit she receives by forgiving the debt, it is valid (ibid.). Therefore, with the right wording, a bitcoin transfer from groom to bride can work (it is a good question at what point in the electronic process the kiddushin would take effect).

Bemare Habazak - Rabbis Questions (601)
Rabbi Daniel Mann
213 - Filling in a Copy of the Ketuba Late
214 - Halachic Status of Bitcoin
215 - Early Reading of Megillat Esther
Load More
Halacha distinguishes between currency (tiv’a) and commodities (peiri). One contemporary application relates to the kinyan of chalifin(appr., barter), which applies to commodities and not money(see Bava Metzia 44a-45a). Another is in terms of a Rabbinic form of ribbit (usury) called se’ah b’se’ah. That is, that it may be (depending on complicated parameters) forbidden to lend a certain amount of a commodity, demanding that it be replaced by the same amount of that type of commodity. This is because loans are defined in terms of currency. If one borrows 5 lbs. of apples costing $10, he is to return $10 in some form (including apples), and not 5 lbs. of apples, if the price has changed. If one borrows $100 of cash, he is to return $100, even if the dollar’s value has gone up or down. In these regards, bitcoin is a commodity, not a currency. The clearest reason is that bitcoin is not presently universally accepted as payment (Bava Metzia ibid.). Even a national currency has that status only in a country in which it is widely accepted among people. Bitcoin is not yet close to achieving that.

Ask the Rabbi: Finishing to Eat but Continuing to Drink
Rabbi Daniel Mann | Iyar 5785

Ask the Rabbi: Halachic Status of Hydroponic Maror
Rabbi Daniel Mann | Shevat 5785

Ask the Rabbi: Ice Cream on Hot Cake on Shabbat
Rabbi Daniel Mann | Iyar 5785

Ask the Rabbi: Beracha upon Returning Tzitzit
Rabbi Daniel Mann | Tevet 5785

Rabbi Daniel Mann

Encouraging a Child to Criticize His Parent
5774

Making Sure your Check Is Cashed
Kislev 5783

Ribbit in a Loan from an Irrevocable Trust Fund
Adar 7 5777
