De Beers and other jewelry industry giants create blockchains to verify gems
Leading jewelry companies that have struggled with proving the authenticity of their goods have launched an online distributed ledger based on blockchain to improve global provenance in the diamond and jewelry supply chain.
De Beers announced it has succesfully tracked from mine to jeweler 100 "high-value" diamonds on its new blockchain-based electronic ledger called Tracr now being piloted; De Beers hopes to go live with Tracr later this year.
In December, De Beers, which controls about 35% of the world's diamond production, announced its intention to launch what it called an industry-wide blockchain network to track diamonds. Along with verifying a diamond's authenticity, the De Beers blockchain network will be able to prove the gems are not mined in war-torn areas where the sale of the gems could be used to finance violence.