IBM and a consortium of gold and diamond businesses have announced the first cross-industry initiative to use blockchain to trace the provenance of finished pieces of jewelry across the supply chain for increased transparency.

As Bloomberg notes, the consortium is designed to halt the illegal trade in so-called “blood diamonds”—meaning diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army’s war efforts, or a warlord’s activity—and promote ethical jewelry in general.

Products being tracked through the program should be available to consumers by year-end. The partners—Asahi Refining (precious metals refiner), Helzberg Diamonds (U.S. jewelry retailer), LeachGarner (precious metals supplier), The Richline Group (global jewelry manufacturer) and UL (independent, third party verification)—are launching the TrustChain Initiative with the support of the IBM Blockchain Platform, delivered via the IBM Cloud.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.brandchannel.com