How We Got From mBridge to BRICS Pay

mBridge→ BRICS Clear→ BRICS Pay

TL/DR;

• mBridge = technical precedent.

• BRICS Clear = sovereign back-end.

• BRICS Pay = retail front-end.

Here's the relationship, layer by layer…

---

1. What is mBridge: Infrastructure Sandbox, proof of Concept, Not Political System

mBridge is not formally the foundation for BRICS Clear, it functions as a technical precedent or infrastructural “proof of concept” that informed or inspired elements of BRICS Clear.

• Built by BIS Innovation Hub with China’s deep involvement.

• Demonstrated that multiple central banks can settle directly across borders using CBDCs.

• China’s PBoC tested the digital yuan (e-CNY) through mBridge in cross-border pilot transactions.

Lessons learned: real-time gross settlement, multi-party compliance, liquidity management, and how to digitally trust counterparties without SWIFT.

mBridge built the technical groundwork for:

• Fast, final settlement.

• Interoperability between sovereign monetary systems.

• Decentralized, rule-based transaction layers.¹

2. What is BRICS Clear: Geopolitical Application of mBridge

• Built on top of trust minimization goals, but goes further:

  • Uses gold as neutral collateral.

  • Seeks autonomy from U.S. dollar channels.

  • Focuses on trade clearing, not just interbank FX.

BRICS Clear is about central banks sending money and also utilized ideologically to create a new global settlement order.

It inherits the architectural logic of mBridge (multi-party, decentralized, programmable settlement), but rejects BIS influence and can replace CBDCs with commodities and BRICS currencies.

Note: in between mBridge and BRICS Clear came BRICS Bridge, which was merely mBridge rebranded post BiS withdrawal

---

3. What is the relationship between the mBridge and Brics Clear?

mBridge is not the foundation of BRICS Clear, it is the technical and conceptual stepping stone that:

• Validated decentralized cross-border settlement,

• Showed how to bypass SWIFT without chaos,

• Gave China the confidence to scale its own system.

So: not foundational by design, but instrumental in effect.

---

4. China Bridges the Two

• China is the only common thread between mBridge and BRICS Clear.

• SGEI, mbridge, and BRICS vaulting plans expand mBridge-style functionality into real commodity trade, outside of BIS jurisdiction.

• China is translating technical lessons from mBridge into a BRICS-native architecture that doesn’t rely on globalist institutions.

5. From Brics Clear to Brics Pay

BRICS Clear is the engine/backbone. BRICS Pay is the dashboard/user interface. They work together, but they are not the same thing at all.

What They Are:

BRICS Clear is the infrastructure layer that enables settlement between currencies, often backed by gold or other collateral.

BRICS Pay rides on top of this infrastructure, allowing people and businesses to make payments in local currencies across borders.

BRICS Pay Needs BRICS Clear to Scale:

BRICS Pay can only function reliably if there's a clearing mechanism to handle real-time settlement between currencies like the yuan, ruble, rupee, etc.

Without BRICS Clear, BRICS Pay risks relying on the very dollar-based SWIFT or CHIPS infrastructure it's trying to bypass.

Different Users:

BRICS Pay is mass-facing. Think: tourism, retail, remittances.

BRICS Clear is state-level and wholesale. Think: oil-for-gold deals, sovereign loan repayments, infrastructure financing.

BRICS Clear has the Gold, Not BRICS Pay:

The gold-backed aspect of the BRICS monetary system—the international vaulting, pooled collateral, blockchain tracking—is handled by BRICS Clear.

BRICS Pay may interact with this indirectly, but it's not the gold layer itself.

---

6. How BRICS Clear adn BRICS Pay Work Together:

1. A Saudi energy company receives yuan through BRICS Pay for oil exports to India.

2. That yuan is cleared via BRICS Clear, possibly collateralized with gold held in a vault in Shanghai or Riyadh.

3. The consumer-level BRICS Pay app is unaware of the gold ledger or interbank settlement—but it rides on the rails BRICS Clear built.

7. Bottom Line:

• mbridge was technical and exploratory, rooted in BIS structure.

• BRICS Clear is geopolitical and strategic, built for real-world commodity and currency settlement.

• BRICS Pay is user-focused, designed to make the BRICS financial system usable by the public.

Is mBridge the Foundation?

1. Not formally. Not institutionally. But yes, functionally:

mBridge is like the test lab. BRICS Clear is the private factory.

• mBridge proved the pipes can work.

• BRICS Clear is now building its own plumbing, using what China learned.