Money Routing Protocol (MRP)

March 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

Status: Draft · Maintained by the Coinnect project · Open for comment

Coinnect is the reference implementation of MRP. The protocol is implementation-agnostic — anyone may build a compatible router, aggregator, or client.

1. What is MRP?

The Money Routing Protocol is an open specification for describing, querying, and ranking multi-step money transfer paths between any two currencies.

It is to money transfers what BGP is to internet routing: a shared language for finding optimal paths across a fragmented, multi-provider network — without any single entity controlling the path or taking custody of funds.

MRP defines:

  • A standard Edge data model (one conversion step)
  • A standard Route response format (ranked multi-step paths)
  • A standard Quote API contract (GET /v1/quote)
  • A standard Corridor listing format (GET /v1/corridors)
  • A provider listing standard (how exchanges declare their edges)

2. Core data model

2.1 Edge

An Edge represents one conversion step between two currencies via one provider.

{
  "from_currency": "USD",
  "to_currency": "MXN",
  "via": "Wise",
  "fee_pct": 2.1,
  "exchange_rate": 17.42,
  "estimated_minutes": 60,
  "min_amount": 1.0,
  "max_amount": 100000.0,
  "instructions": "Bank transfer via Wise — direct deposit",
  "live": true
}
FieldTypeRequiredDescription
from_currencystring (ISO 4217)✓Source currency
to_currencystring (ISO 4217)✓Destination currency
viastring✓Provider name
fee_pctfloat✓Total cost as % of sent amount (fee + spread combined)
exchange_ratefloat✓Units of to_currency per 1 from_currency, after fees
estimated_minutesint✓Median transfer time in minutes
min_amountfloat✓Minimum send amount in from_currency
max_amountfloat✓Maximum send amount in from_currency
instructionsstring✓Human-readable step description
livebooltrue if rate is from live API, false/absent if estimated

Note on fee_pct: This is the all-in cost — exchange rate margin plus any fixed or percentage transfer fees, normalized to a percentage of the sent amount. For a $500 transfer with a 1% fee + 0.5% spread, fee_pct = 1.5.

2.2 Route

A Route is an ordered sequence of Edges forming a complete transfer path.

{
  "rank": 1,
  "label": "Cheapest",
  "total_cost_pct": 1.2,
  "total_time_minutes": 75,
  "you_send": 500.0,
  "they_receive": 8692.00,
  "they_receive_currency": "MXN",
  "steps": [ /* array of Steps, one per Edge */ ]
}

2.3 Quote response

{
  "from_currency": "USD",
  "to_currency": "MXN",
  "amount": 500.0,
  "generated_at": "2026-03-22T00:00:00Z",
  "routes": [ /* ordered by total_cost_pct ascending */ ]
}

3. API contract

3.1 Quote endpoint

GET /v1/quote?from={ISO}&to={ISO}&amount={float}

Returns routes ranked by total_cost_pct ascending. The response MUST include at minimum the cheapest and fastest routes when they differ.

Headers:

  • X-Api-Key (optional): API key for higher rate limits

Errors:

  • 404: No routes found for this corridor
  • 503: Exchange data temporarily unavailable

3.2 Corridors endpoint

GET /v1/corridors

Returns a list of supported currency pairs with example providers.

3.3 Health endpoint

GET /v1/health

Returns service status, version, and data freshness.

4. Provider listing standard

Any exchange or remittance provider that wishes to be indexed by an MRP-compatible router MUST provide at minimum:

  1. Published pricing page — fee structure and rate margins publicly accessible
  2. Corridor list — supported currency pairs with min/max send amounts
  3. Payment methods — what the sender and recipient need (bank account, mobile money, cash, crypto wallet)
  4. Rate freshness — how often rates are updated; if no API, a commitment to notify on pricing changes

Providers with public rate APIs receive a "live": true flag in Edge responses. Providers without APIs are included with ~est. in instructions and a "live": false flag.

To request listing: Open an issue at the Coinnect GitHub repository or email hello@coinnect.bot with your corridor list and pricing documentation.

5. Routing algorithm

MRP routers MUST implement at minimum:

  1. Graph construction: Build a directed graph where nodes are currencies and edges are provider steps
  2. Multi-hop traversal: Support paths up to 3 hops (e.g. USD → USDC → MXN)
  3. Cost calculation: total_cost_pct is the compound cost of all steps:
    • total_cost = 1 - product((1 - fee_i/100) for each step i)
  4. Amount filtering: Exclude edges where amount < min_amount or amount > max_amount
  5. De-duplication: Return at most one route per unique provider combination

Routers SHOULD rank by total_cost_pct ascending as the primary sort, with a "Fastest" label for the minimum-time route.

6. Governance (proposed)

MRP is designed as a community standard. The reference implementation (Coinnect) is maintained by its founder under MIT license.

Proposed governance model:

  • Working Group: Open to financial inclusion researchers, fintech developers, remittance operators, and NGOs
  • Decisions: Rough consensus (IETF model) for protocol changes
  • Versioning: Semantic versioning; breaking changes require a new major version
  • Chair: Founder maintains chair role while project is pre-foundation; role is transferable

How to participate:

  • GitHub discussions at the Coinnect repository
  • Email hello@coinnect.bot to join the working group mailing list

7. Vision

Global remittances move ~$800B/year. Most people sending money across borders pay 5–10% in fees because they have no easy way to compare all options. Banks, crypto rails, mobile money, and P2P platforms all offer different rates for different corridors — but there is no common language for routing across them.

MRP is an attempt to create that common language: a neutral, open standard that benefits senders, recipients, and the broader financial inclusion mission — the same way HTTP benefited the open web.

We are not building a payment network. We are building the map.

Draft v0.1 · March 2026 · Coinnect project · MIT License Feedback welcome: hello@coinnect.bot