Antwerp

Blockchain is the new buzzword in Antwerp. Everybody is talking about it, but no one really knows what it is. At least, that’s what emerges from conversations with various people on the Diamond Mile.
   Everyone is looking into blockchain, and the leading miners have no intention of remaining strangers to the concept, said Pierre De Bosscher, an industry banking specialist. “De Beers initiated the move among the major producers, and shortly after, Alrosa said they would join. I think all producers should play along, since it’s a matter of everybody acting together.”
   De Bosscher also explained that blockchain would help further prevent conflict diamonds and synthetics from entering the supply chain, which in turn would contribute to maintaining trust among end-users.

Unblocking the banks?
Isy Mörsel, CEO of Dali Diamonds, suggested that using blockchain could help restore bank credit, which has been increasingly difficult for local diamantaires to obtain due to transparency issues. “More than anyone else, banks are entitled to full transparency on our behalf. If blockchain helps them ensure the origin of our stones, how long they‘ve been in our inventory and how long we’ve used their credit to manufacture them, why not?”
   As part of a tender process it launched last year to consider alternative banking systems for Antwerp, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) is analyzing how blockchain could help Diamond Mile businesses.
   “The AWDC is indeed looking into blockchain and various other options, but so far we’ve not reached a stage yet where definite appointments or decisions have been made,” said AWDC spokesperson Margaux Donckier.

‘As natural as emails are today’
Everledger is probably the most experienced blockchain company when it comes to diamonds, having been active in the Kimberley Process. Leanne Kemp, its founder and CEO, believes blockchain will soon become ubiquitous.
   “This is what the blockchain does at its core. It is a shared ledger technology that allows participants in a business network to transact assets where everyone has control, but no one person is in control. It’ll be just as natural as emails or browsers are today,” she said.
   However, she stressed, just as with medical or electrical appliances, this development must go hand-in-hand with implementing new standards in the diamond trade. “I know it’s a very large undertaking, but it won’t prevent the producers or the manufacturers or any player [from developing] their own systems, provided they’re using the same language... It’s just like the Android or the Apple systems: They are different, but the software is more and more compliant and able to run on both platforms.”

Integration under way
The International Gemological Institute (IGI) Antwerp is in the preliminary stages of understanding how to integrate the system and what kind of data would be necessary to collect from its clients, according to CEO Roland Lorié. “The situation with natural diamonds is quite different from that of gemstones such as ruby, sapphire or emeralds. It may make sense for colored-stone labs to develop a blockchain database in which they retrace the history of each colored stone, because it’s relatively easy to assess their origin. But where diamonds are concerned, as experts, we would need the whole historical chain created by the producers and manufacturers to add to our report and pass it further down the pipeline.”
   Even though it’s not an easy concept to deal with at this stage, many believe the industry must take the time to understand this technology and what it can bring to the table, in the same way it got used to the internet.
   “Facts will prove that blockchain is going to be as important as the internet revolution, but this time for transactions and business networks,” noted Kemp.

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2018. To subscribe click here.