Interesting development on the dedollarization front. It turns out that BRICS is taking concrete steps, not just talking about changes. According to Intellinews, on December 8th, the BRICS group unveiled a prototype of a trade digital currency called "Unit," which is intended to be backed by gold. This is not an accidental idea — the project is backed by the Institute of Economic Strategies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It's important to understand how it works. The reserve basket supporting the new BRICS currency consists of 40% physical gold and 60% of the member countries' currencies — the Brazilian real, Chinese yuan, Indian rupee, Russian ruble, and South African rand — each with equal weight. This genuinely shifts the game compared to the current dollar-based system.

The project started on October 31st, when IRIAS issued 100 units of Unit. Each unit was initially linked to 1 gram of gold. But here’s the interesting part — the value changes daily depending on the exchange rates of the component currencies to gold. As of December 4th, the market adjusted the reserve basket valuation, and each Unit was worth 0.9823 grams of gold. This shows that the system is indeed functioning dynamically.

Of course, this is still a pilot project, not official BRICS policy. But its very existence is a clear signal of the direction they want to move toward. Dedollarization will not happen overnight, but it’s evident that serious players are starting to build alternatives. It’s worth watching — such moves could have long-term implications for the entire financial system.