Needed: ‘Clean’ Diamonds
Chow Tai Fook Jewelery Group in Hong Kong is now using the Everledger Diamond blockchain Platform to track the authenticity and quality of its diamonds. Secured by the IBM Blockchain Platform, this solution will allow the transparency of diamond certification – letting consumers know that their diamonds are ‘clean,’ according to a report from the South China Morning Post.
The platform uses the “Diamond Time-Lapse” protocol, a traceability initiative that tracks the entire gamut of a diamonds’ lifecycle – from mine to consumer. The GIA gradation and certificates will be stored in the blockchain platform, preventing any tampering of the information. All of this data is delivered to the customer via the T Mark app. More than 3,000 T Mark diamond reports are already on the Chow Tai Fook blockchain. Eventually, the company will grow that to 10 stores and 10,000 diamonds.
And Chow Tai isn’t the only jeweler on the blockchain. The De Beers Group – the one who coined the slogan “a diamond is forever” – is working on a similar blockchain initiative called Tracr. De Beers hopes the platform will be available at the end of 2018.
A Complex Industry
As this ‘Brilliant Earth’ report shows, much of the world’s diamonds come from war-torn countries in Africa. Often, diamond mining results in violence, environmental issues, and human rights violations. In the last twenty years alone, diamonds have fueled civil war in seven African countries.
The information revolution has made our world more democratic, meaning consumer conscience is an even more potent force. “Nowadays, young consumers often show interest in the entire cycle of diamonds, and therefore there is a growing importance for jewelers to help ascertain the origin and authenticity of gemstones by leveraging modern technology,” exaplined Alan Chan, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group’s general manager of group branding.
This solution not only highlights a key use case of blockchain in social justice and ethical situations, but also supply chain tracking and assurance. The same technology can be used for tracking the food supply, or even improving package delivery. Regardless of the industry, blockchain is arming consumers with more information about the products and services they use. Which, in turn, could benefit the world in much bigger ways.
