This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 11 in 2021. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
Tracr, the blockchain-based diamond traceability platform launched by De Beers in 2018, today also includes the Chow Tai Fook Jewelery Group of Hong Kong, the Signet Jewelers Group as well as the Russian company ALROSA, a new entry that made headlines among insiders. The fact that the two world’s largest competing diamond producers are starting a collaboration and investing huge economic resources in the field of traceability, most likely will result in a worldwide shared standard by which every single diamond relevant to trade will be completely traced.
According to De Beers’ plan the Tracr platform will lead by 2030 to trace the origin and the transition of every single diamond extracted and sold by the participating companies, thus ensuring transparency throughout the value chain. The data of each diamond entered in the system will be accessible both by end customers and diamond retailers all over the world. According to what De Beers has stated in 2019, the system will most likely be restricted to tracing diamonds of half a carat or more, while solutions are being considerate for batches of rough and small size polished gems.
Through these noticeable investments in traceability the diamond industry try to respond the demand of the market, increasingly determined to exclude all diamonds that cannot prove to be legitimately produced from transactions. Similarly, other blockchain ledgers, such as the Diamond Time-Lapse Protocol (DTLP) developed by Everledger, will support Tiffany’s Diamond Source Initiative that we discussed in issue no. 6/2019 of IGR as well as the Provenance Proof by Gübelin. The issue has been also focused in the latest Human Right Watch report, published in November 2020.
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #11, Winter 2020-21
