IBM, one of the world's largest technology companies, announced that a group of companies belonging to the jewelry industry will use distributed accounting technology (DLT) to trace the provenance of finished pieces, with the aim of providing transparency to the consumers.
The initiative, called TrustChain, will verify the digital and physical processes along the supply chain, also allowing the supervision of third parties. In this way, better quality products are guaranteed and manufactured in an ethical and responsible manner.
Initially, the project will be used to track six types of gold and diamond engagement rings. But as it progresses, the project is expected to be available to the other consumers who operate in the different participating stores.
The reason for the creation of TrustChain is precisely to offer consumers of jewelry and precious metals a better and more transparent supply chain. Thanks to this technology, customers can be sure of the origin of what they are paying.
Verification and authentication is a problem that both the industry and its consumers have suffered due to the complexity of the supply chain in this area, since it involves miners, geologists, certifiers, regulators, shipping managers, wholesale suppliers, designers, among others. In this regard, the Senior Vice President of IBM, Bridget van Kralingen, commented:
"Consumers are deeply concerned about the quality and source of the jewelry they buy." This is evidenced by the fact that 66% of consumers around the world are willing to spend more to support sustainable brands TrustChain is an example of how Blockchain is transforming industries through transparency and new viable business models that They specifically benefit the consumer. "
Bridget van Kralingen
Senior Vice President of IBM
For his part, Mark Hanna, marketing director of Richline Group, one of the participating companies, added that this initiative is important for the jewelry industry, as it seeks to "raise collective responsibility and practices of origin to new heights" .
Specifically, TrustChain will be powered by IBM Blockchain Platform and will be used through IBM Cloud. The participating companies are The Richline Group, which is responsible for the manufacture of jewelry; Helzberg Diamonds, a US retailer; Asahi Refining, refining of precious metals; LeachGarner, precious metals supplier and UL, an independent security and software solutions company that will manage the project network.
Along the same lines, the Alrosa consortium, a group of Russian companies, announced that it will analyze how to implement blockchain solutions that allow the client to trace the provenance of diamonds. On the other hand, the DLT not only serves to track jewelery already finished, because this technology has also been implemented in situations such as the eradication of the purchase and sale of illegal diamonds.