Matthew J. Martin is a 30-year-old who grow up in Earlville, New York as the son of a teacher and a skilled blue collar worker. He now lives in San Francisco, where he is building a business around using Bitcoin to allow Muslims around the world to participate in finance without breaking Islamic law.

As you may know, Islamic law prohibits Muslims from trading through interest-based markets or companies. Martin—who converted to Islam five years ago while he was working deep in the financial tech world—is trying to change that with his startup Blossom Finance.

Martin's conversion to Islam came about after a broken heart. "Years ago I was dating this girl," he said. "She was not a practicing Muslim but she was from a Muslim background, and we thought we were going to get married." She told him he had to convert if they wanted to get married, so he started researching the religion.

"We ended up breaking up," he said. "But I became more interested in this religion I was learning about, mostly from an academic, intellectual perspective… The more I studied Islam, the more I realized this is very compatible with what I already believe, until one night I had this very vivid dream, and in my dream I was praying in a mosque and... I made Sujud, the act of prostration with your head on the ground. When I did that act in prayer, I felt the feeling of enlightenment enter my body and I wept in the dream. I started crying out of joy, out of this amazing sort of passion, just beautiful peace and knowledge and understanding I felt in that moment."