The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) will join De Beers’ Tracr, the world’s first distributed diamond blockchain platform, to give consumers “a GIA grading report with enhanced information about the diamond’s provenance,” according to a report in Rough & Polished.
Ryan Perry, De Beers acting executive vice president of strategy and innovation, commented: “As the issue of diamond provenance rapidly grows in importance for stakeholders across the diamond value chain, having immutable data about a diamond’s journey from the source on grading reports is a major step forward and will underpin consumer confidence. We are delighted to see GIA – the largest provider of diamond grading reports in the diamond industry – join Tracr and lead the way.”
To date, “Tracr has securely registered over 1 million rough diamonds at the source level and 110, 000 diamonds at the manufacturer level,” according to the report.
In other GIA news, IDEX Online reports that the lab “has bowed to pressure” and re-introduces paper certificates “at no extra cost” after the move to digital-only Diamond Dossiers, for stones up to 1.99-cts, “provoked widespread criticism from retailers, who said some customers were refusing to buy a diamond without one.”
