Commentaries on cryptocurrencies from muslim scholars and experts in social media based on an information dissemination model

Abstract

This dissertation reports on the commentaries on cryptocurrencies from Muslim scholars and experts in social media based on an information dissemination model. In recent years, cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have become increasingly popular since it was launched in 2009. People were attracted to know and understand this type of technology due to its unique characteristics. The research objectives were to identify commentaries on cryptocurrencies offered by Muslim scholars and experts in social media, to identify the themes of the commentaries made by Muslim scholars and experts related to cryptocurrencies extracted from the social media, and to explore the responses of social media users to the commentaries made by the Muslim scholars related to cryptocurrencies. The methods used in this research were content analysis to identify and analyse the commentaries from nine selected Muslim scholars and experts for producing topics and themes, and an online survey questionnaire completed by 115 respondents. This research found the themes extracted from the identified commentaries made by Muslim scholars on social media as follows: 1. Cryptocurrency, 2. Bitcoin, and 3. Blockchain. Social media users responded to the statements derived from the commentaries and themes are as follows; first, 74% of 115 respondents agreed with cryptocurrency as a currency in digital form that is intangible and not issued by a government but issued by a single community, and; second, 70% of 115 respondents agreed with the fact that cryptocurrency was built from specific code numbers. These findings indicated that 1. (64% of 85) respondents that agreed with cryptocurrency are a currency in digital form that is intangible and not issued by a government but issued by a single community were informed on cryptocurrencies, and 2. (62% of 81) respondents that agree with cryptocurrency are built from specific code numbers were informed on cryptocurrencies. In conclusion, the commentaries on cryptocurrencies made by the Muslim scholars and experts explained the issues related to cryptocurrencies and were well-responded by social media users. This research contributed to the extraction of the topic commentaries and themes of commentaries, and the social media user responses to the commentaries. The further research works included Muslim scholars and experts in other countries and extended to examine how social media influences user perceptions towards cryptocurrencies.