BRICS’ Trust Score

Argentina was in line to join BRICS, but new President Milei halted that process. India is entering a conflict with neighboring Pakistan on its own. Brazil does not want Venezuela to be involved in BRICS. There are all kinds of examples of countries inside and outside BRICS that indicate that the world is in flux. Countries are acting primarily in their own interests rather than reliably cooperating with each other.

Several countries are trying to take advantage of multiple partnerships without staying true to build friendships within those partnerships. It is a logical consequence of how we humans are still put things together, but it is not a true growth toward a truly multipolar world. BRICS will have to do something different from what the West has done for millennia, it has to start offering a real alternative.

You cannot force countries, so you will have to leave them free in their choices to participate in different partnerships. Flexibility is needed to accommodate electoral shifts in countries, for example. Participation in BRICS must be attractive, but not non-committal. This cannot be solved with all kinds of bureaucratic rules, controls and punitive measures. A reward system based on trust is an option.

I know many people are reluctant when it comes to a (social) credit score, but that depends mostly on how it is implemented. When a credit score focuses on punishment rather than reward, it drives fear and passivity. When a credit score is imposed from above, then countervailing power and intelligence disappear. I also think it is a dangerous tool, but perhaps it is needed for a while until humans themselves become conscious.

So how can you ensure that BRICS countries behave “properly” within their alliance? How can you get India to behave more like a BRICS country in a multipolar world than a Western-oriented country in a unipolar world? How can you get countries considering joining BRICS to focus on cooperation within BRICS rather than outside it?

Now what if a BRICS country attacks or undermines another BRICS country? Can you then remove that country from BRICS and does that make sense? Would that help, or not? What have we seen during the West’s sanctions? But something does not have to go wrong on purpose, because just as suddenly a country collapses due to perhaps a natural disaster or revolutionary elections. The other BRICS countries gain or lose confidence in cooperation.

Perhaps BRICS is in need of a reliable and anti-corruption-proof “trust score” system. A system without central management, so no bureaucracy and manipulation. Transparent and with immutable decentralized data, so public audits and using blockchain technology. Joint independent scorekeepers, so no monopoly among countries and companies but with the help of an open-source AI model.

A trust score purely based on objective criteria and hard agreements. A higher trust score means more favorable terms, for example, access to BRICS bank loans. A lower trust score is not exclusion, but fewer benefits. It should be an incentive for countries to “behave”. No one can influence another country’s trust score, there is no veto power and no country has more say than another.

Will such a thing work? Probably not. Human beings are infinitely creative and as long as human beings are focused on self-interest rather than the collective, human beings will find ways to corrupt any system. We shouldn’t really have a system at all, but without a system it is also misery. Therefore, perhaps a temporary system is still needed to keep us in line. Perhaps a trust score within BRICS could contribute to this.

Perhaps this will open the door to an examination of how BRICS can escape the trap that all the hegemons have fallen into so far. It should not become the West 2.0, with rules, control, bureaucracy and eventually that same corruption again. China is becoming an (economic) superpower and can it resist the temptation? The West should not be or remain an adversary, but needs just as much incentives to want to participate.

What I am looking for is a way for countries and people to become more aware of our common challenge of a better world for all. A multipolar world is only one step to that, much more needs to happen especially in our consciousness. There needs to be more trust. How are we going to make that happen? Without punishment, control and rules, but with reward, fun and challenge. It can be so much fun to work together.

Nico Cost