Topic: [2018-01-16] De Beers turns to blockchain to guarantee diamond purity [reuters] (Read 74 times)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anglo-debeers-blockchain/de-beers-turns-to-blockchain-to-guarantee-diamond-purity-idUSKBN1F51HV

Anglo American’s (AAL.L) diamond unit De Beers aims to launch the first industry-wide blockchain this year to track gems each time they change hands starting from the moment they are dug from the ground, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

FILE PHOTO: Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers, poses in Hong Kong, China September 14, 2016. Picture taken September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer by the value of its gems, has led industry efforts to verify the authenticity of diamonds and ensure they are not from conflict zones where gems could be used to finance violence.

For De Beers, cast-iron guarantees its stones are ethically sourced are vital to maintaining consumer confidence. It sells technology across the industry to help prevent anyone trying to pass off synthetic stones as natural.

The firm also works with the rest of the industry and governments to support the Kimberley Process set up in 2003 to increase transparency and eliminate trade in conflict diamonds.

The firm says blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, complements its existing methods. It offers a secure way to track diamonds and can provide a digital record they are conflict-free, it says.

“It’s a huge public ledger as immutable as anything invented,” CEO Bruce Cleaver told Reuters in reference to blockchain. “It’s a much more un-hackable system than anything on a single server.”

Blockchain is a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet that is best known as the system underpinning bitcoin.

Other industries are also looking at blockchain to enhance security or create efficiencies in business, such as financial transactions. Bankers say it could be used in trade finance or cross-border payments. But such plans have not gone beyond the pilot stage.


The diamond blockchain, which De Beers says will be the first to span the entire value chain, would be open to everyone in the industry and would offer the potential for monitoring each stone.