The world鈥檚 largest diamond jewellery retailer, Signet, has become the first chain to join De Beers鈥� pilot of its called Tracr, aimed at clearing the supply chain of imposters and conflict minerals.
Signet will work alongside the Tracr team to ensure the platform meets the needs of the jewellery manufacture and retail sectors, with the partnership initially focusing on the tracking of diamond jewellery and expanding the pilot鈥檚 scope to cater for smaller-sized goods.
鈥淲e are joining the Tracr pilot because we believe the project not only has strong potential to facilitate increased transparency and confidence within the industry, but it can also foster much-needed digital transformation,鈥� Signet Jewelers chief executive, Virginia C. Drosos, said .
Tracr, expected to launch later this year,聽gives each diamond a unique ID that stores stones characteristics such as weight, colour and clarity.聽
Anglo American鈥檚 De Beers, the world鈥檚 biggest diamond miner by value, has led industry efforts to verify the authenticity of diamonds and ensure they are not from conflict zones where gems may be used to finance violence.
The pilot, announced in January, has an initial focus on large stones, but De Beers will extend its scope with the goal of making it the first industry-wide tracking system.
The blockchain platform is basically a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the Internet, a technology currently being employed in the bitcoin sector.
Tracr, expected to launch later this year,聽gives each diamond a unique ID that stores stones characteristics such as weight, colour and clarity. To support the process, the system will also be using stone photos and planned outcome images.
Earlier this month, De Beers 100 high-value diamonds from miner to retailer using Tracr. The event was the first time a gem鈥檚 journey had been digitally-tracked along the supply chain.
Despite the establishment of the Kimberley Process in 2003, aimed at removing those so-called conflict diamonds from the supply chain, experts say聽.
De Beers believes the development of a system like聽Tracr聽should help solve that problem.