'De Beers' Diamond Miners Turns to Blockchain in Times of 'Smuggle'

De Beers, the London-based diamond miner, has decided to adopt the blockchain technology in order to curb the illegal outflow of the precious stones. The company is rolling out its blockchain-based diamond source platform on a wide scale. The name of this platform is ‘Tracr' and De Beers is advertising it as the “world's only distributed diamond blockchain”. The aim of this launch is to give a “tamper-proof” surety on the legal origin of the diamonds that retailers are purchasing.

Decentralised in nature, the blockchain platform is capable of delivering unchangeable information at the source of De Beers diamonds. The company expects this shall make the source assurance of diamonds by De Beers, a full 100 percent authentic.

“The Tracr platform combines distributed ledger technology with advanced data security and privacy, ensuring that participants control the use of and access to their own data,” the company said in a recent statement.

“Each participant on Tracr has their own distributed version of the platform, meaning that their data can only be shared with their permission, and only they choose who can access their information.”

One of the key elements of blockchain is its ability to safeguard transparency. Blockchain networks store information in a way that it cannot be altered without recording the changes made.

The release of the blockchain platform comes amid rising cases of diamond smuggling adding to the concerns of producers, retailer, and end buyers.

As per Bitcoin.com, diamond producers like De Beers are under pressure to ensure that any illicitly acquired diamond does not end up into the formal market.

The report also said that the end consumers also insist on inquiring about the source of diamond jewellery, that is anything but cheap, anywhere in the world.

“We are proud to join with our sightholders to provide the industry with immutable diamond source assurance at scale. Tracr, which will enable the provision of provenance information from source to sightholder to store on a secure blockchain, will underpin confidence in natural diamonds and represents the first step in a technological transformation that will enhance standards and raise expectations of what we are capable of providing to our end clients,” Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group said in a statement.

Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, advanced security, and privacy technologies have been combined to shape-up Trackr.