Ali Erakat – Founder Zakat Coin
Q) Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your early life?
Ali Erakat: I was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and lived there from 1980 until 2017. Growing up in the Bay Area shaped my personality, my drive, and my outlook on life. I was always a big sports kid — Raiders, Giants, and Lakers all day. I played Little League baseball, high school football, and that competitiveness carried with me into adulthood.
San Francisco gave me my foundation: hard work, resilience, and the belief that you show up every single day with your best effort.
Q) What is your educational background, and how did it shape your path?
Ali Erakat: After high school, I attended San Francisco State University, but eventually switched to Heald College to pursue a Computer Science degree. Heald was hands-on — I learned hardware, systems, how to take apart and rebuild computers, and how technology really works.
I didn’t finish my last semester because my career took off, but that technical foundation has stayed with me. It trained me to think logically, solve problems, and understand systems — which later made it easy for me to grasp blockchain technology.
Q) Were there mentors or experiences that influenced you?
Ali Erakat: Definitely. One of my earliest mentors came from my first job at Embassy Suites in South San Francisco. I started as a phone operator, and a leader there took me under his wing. He taught me professionalism, how to lead, how to communicate, and how to carry myself.
By 21 years old, I was promoted to Night Manager, then later Front Office Manager, leading a team much older than me. It forced me to grow up fast and understand leadership in the real world.
Later in life, when I moved to New Jersey, my cousin Dr. Muhammad Erekat became another huge influence. A Harvard-trained oral surgeon, deeply devoted to Islam — he never preached to me or pushed me. He just lived the religion. We spent time together, prayed together during the last ten nights of Ramadan, and over time, his example brought me closer to Allah without me even realizing it.
Q) How did your past career prepare you for what you’re building now?
Ali Erakat: I’ve worked in hotels, government cafés, food service, restaurants, the NFL, and eventually federal-level dental operations. Individually, these industries look nothing alike. But together, they gave me an irreplaceable blend of skills.
Through all those years, I learned how to:
• run operations
• lead teams
• manage pressure
• navigate compliance
• communicate with people
• build relationships
• negotiate
• solve problems
• scale systems
• take responsibility
• understand government frameworks
• and grow real businesses
My experience isn’t textbook — it’s lived.
Everything I went through prepared me to build Zakat Coin with discipline, clarity, and long-term vision.
Q) Outside of work, what defines you?
Ali Erakat: My family — my wife Lena and our three amazing children — always come first. I love sports, I enjoy cooking, and I’ve always been someone who builds things and finds solutions.
And since 2019, my biggest hobby has been crypto. I’ve spent years reading white papers, studying stablecoins, liquidity pools, AMMs, and utility tokens. It started as curiosity and became a full-on obsession.
Q) What inspired you to create Zakat Coin?
Ali Erakat: Zakat Coin was inspired by three major parts of my life coming together at the perfect time:
1. Lena — the “Queen of Charity”
When I met Lena, she was running a jewelry line built entirely around giving back. Every business she created had charity at the center. She later became the Executive Director of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit while raising three kids.
She lives with a pure heart for philanthropy. Her passion for helping people made me rethink what charity could look like on a bigger scale.
2. My return to Islam in early 2025
When we moved to New Jersey in 2019, I lived a few miles away from my cousin Dr. Muhammad Erekat. He never pushed religion — he simply lived Islam with sincerity, kindness, and discipline.
From 2019 to 2025, I fasted Ramadan every year and joined him and his family during the last ten nights of prayer. I didn’t notice it at first, but being around him brought me closer to Allah in a natural, organic way.
In 2025, everything clicked.
Islam brought me clarity.
The Qur’an tied everything together.
I realized that zakat, a system perfected 1,400 years ago, was essentially the purest form of transparent financial distribution — the same thing blockchain is trying to build today.
3. My obsession with crypto
Since 2019, I’ve been deep into studying blockchain mechanics — utility tokens, liquidity pools, AMMs, transparency models, stablecoins, you name it. I read more white papers than I can count.
Crypto showed me how we can build systems that are transparent, fair, and accountable.
Putting it all together
If you take:
• Lena’s heart for charity
• Islam’s clarity and discipline
• Muhammad’s influence and example
• and years of studying blockchain
Zakat Coin was the natural outcome.
Without Allah, Zakat Coin wouldn’t exist.
Without Lena, it wouldn’t exist.
Without Muhammad’s example, it wouldn’t exist.
Without crypto, it wouldn’t exist.
It’s faith, family, and technology — aligned for one purpose:
to build the most transparent charitable system on earth.
Q) How does Zakat Coin blend Islamic finance with blockchain?
Ali Erakat: Islamic finance emphasizes honesty, transparency, and fair distribution. Blockchain gives us timestamped, traceable, immutable transactions. The two align perfectly.
Zakat Coin takes Islamic principles and scales them through modern technology.
Q) What does “ethical innovation” mean to you?
Ali Erakat: To me, innovation only matters when it serves people. It’s not about hype, not about speculation — it’s about solving real problems with sincerity and intention. That’s the foundation of Zakat Coin.
Q) What is your long-term vision for Zakat Coin?
Ali Erakat: In 5 to 10 years, I want Zakat Coin to become the global standard for charitable giving, for both Muslims and non-Muslims. A system where donations are instant, transparent, stable in value, and globally verifiable.