A few days after announcing it is piloting the GIA’s (Gemological Institute of America) M2M program, a digital platform that matches rough diamonds to the resulting polished gems, Alrosa has now joined De Beers’ Tracr platform’s pilot programme.
Tracr is an end-to-end diamond blockchain developed by De Beers and other industry stakeholders, now in its pilot stage. According to Alrosa, the company “will join industry leaders from the diamond manufacturing and retail sectors in creating the blockchain platform by the industry, for the industry”.
Alrosa adds that its involvement “brings the world’s two largest diamond producers together to provide enhanced assurance for consumers and trade participants about the provenance and authenticity of their diamonds, and in creating a digital foundation for new services that can only be developed on an end-to-end platform”.
Tracr is worked on by De Beers and five more diamond manufacturers – Diacore, Diarough, KGK Group, Rosy Blue NV and Venus Jewel. De Beers previously said that the new platform, to be developed in consultancy with global industry leaders, will allow “for a highly secure digital register that creates a tamper-proof and permanent record of interactions”. The platform will create benefits for both buyers and sellers, according to De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver, since “participants can be confident that a transaction occurred, but safe in the knowledge that the sensitive data remains between them and their counterparty”.
