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CipherPhi See where your Zakat goes

When you give your Zakat, you trust that it reaches the people who need it. With CipherPhi, you no longer have to take our word for it: you can see it.

We are building CipherPhi now, and we need your help.

Donate now to fund the build
In partnership with

How can you be sure your Zakat reached the right place?

Simple: we make every step visible.

The Swiss Zakat Foundation already collects and distributes Zakat in Switzerland, with audited accounts and a careful eligibility process. CipherPhi puts our rules into a system that follows them every time, and that no one, not even us, can bend.

  1. You give. You sign in with your email address, with no app to install and no fees to pay. At first, gifts are made in USDC, a digital version of the US dollar. Giving in Swiss francs is planned for a later phase.
  2. Your gift is shared. The moment it arrives, your gift is shared across the eight categories of Zakat, following the shares set by our Shariah authority.
  3. Two people approve. No payment leaves without two of three Foundation signatures: our Executive Director, our Shariah authority and an independent signer. It is the same “joint signature by two” rule that Swiss foundations already follow.
  4. It reaches a vetted partner. Payments only go to partner organisations we have checked through our eligibility process. They then help the people in need, as they do today.
  5. You can check. Every payment leaves a public record that anyone can open and no one can change. You see which category your Zakat went to and when it was delivered. The names of the people helped are never published.

Built on

CipherPhi runs on Stellar, a global payment network that was certified Sharia compliant in 2018.

The certificate was issued by the Shariyah Review Bureau, a Sharia advisory firm licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain. It covers sending money and holding digital assets on Stellar, which is exactly what CipherPhi does.

The certificate is about the network, not about CipherPhi itself. How CipherPhi shares your Zakat between the eight categories is checked by our own Shariah authority, and no real payment is made before they have approved it.

The code that holds the money is open for anyone to read, and independent security experts will review it before launch.

How we help

As a Zakat foundation, we bring what no technology can replace: our experience, our eligibility process, our partner network and our Shariah oversight.

We hold every key that can approve a payment. Our partners Swiss Islamic Finance and Bits & Blocks build CipherPhi, but they cannot move a single franc. We start with one vetted partner organisation, and will grow from there.

Product owner

Designs CipherPhi and brings it to donors.

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Technology partner

Builds the platform and its open-source code.

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