While many be somewhat aware that China, Russia and other BRICS nations are supposedly trying to create an alternative petrocurrency to the US Dollar, like me, they not have much clue as to how this may play out. Well, as it turns out, it isn’t the emergence of a new currency backed by Gold that all of this turns on but a payment system called mBridge. mBridge reached minimal viable product stage in early June apparently. mBridge is the result of extensive collaboration starting in 2021 between the BIS Innovation Hub, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The Saudi Central Bank has also recently joined mBridge as a full participant. There are now more than 26 observing members that may join as the project moves forward. But what is mBridge? mBridge is a payment system created ostensibly to address financial inclusion concerns by the BRICS.. It aims to address some of the key inefficiencies in cross-border payments, including high costs, low speed and operational complexities, according to BIS, that states that “multi-CBDC arrangements that connect different jurisdictions in… continue reading