De Beers has today unveiled Tracr, a blockchain software developed together with five other diamond manufacturers. Their goal was to guard against the act of serving retailers with precious stones exported from conflict zones around the globe. It was on Thursday that Tracr was tested for the first time.

The conducted Test run

The test run conducted by De Beers for the first time tracked about 100 high-value diamonds. If matters play out according to plan, it will be operational in the entire industry before the year comes to a close.

Bruce Cleaver, the current Chief executive of De Beers Group, while recently moving out of a business conference came across a number of news reporters that wanted to get his perspective regarding the latest development.

Cleaver said that it was great breakthrough for them and the industry in its entirety. He added that what had made the whole thing a monumental success was the close engagement of the pilot participants who had indicated great confidence in the company’s commitment to industry innovation and progress.

Future plans and the benefits of the system

De Beers has expressed its willingness to share its platform with more partners in coming months. The huge focus right now is the capturing of the company’s insights in a proper way and after that it will be the unleashing of the technology to the wider industry base.

It is a system that can be trusted when it comes to ensuring that only the right gems find their way to the specified destination. BCG Digital Ventures is the company that played a huge role in coming up with the blockchain tracking system.

The Tracr project team has said that it is now able to track a diamond through the value chain and according to its analysis asset-traceability assurance has never been this good before. The decision to lay emphasis on the sale of the “ethically-sourced” diamonds from the various small scale miners is a matter that has been praised by market observers around the globe.