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A British start-up, Everledger aims to prevent diamond theft and fraud with the help of the blockchain technology. It would track the provenance of all the diamonds registered by Everledger.

Everledger, “made with love in London”, according to its webpage, is “a permanent ledger for diamond certification and related transaction history”. It uses the immutability of the blockchain to register diamonds, recording all the data related to each precious stone. The aim is to create “a fraud detection system”, allowing owners, police and insurance companies to track any diamond.

There are currently more than 300,000 diamonds already registered with Everledger, and 800,000 more waiting to be registered. Every diamond has a unique ‘fingerprint’, consisting of 40 different parameters. Law enforcement and insurance data is maintained on a special private platform linked to the blockchain.  According  to Leanne Kemp, CEO of Everledger, the most expensive diamonds take priority:

“We're interested in those diamonds that get cut and look pretty and end up on a princess's little finger for her wedding day”.

Everledger’s team believes they can greatly reduce diamond theft. Currently, it is a multi-million business, not least because diamonds are not easily to trace. As their value grows over time, a thief can wait and sell them when the crime has already been forgotten. It would not be possible when all the diamonds are registered on the blockchain. And while a criminal may change the shape of the stone to prevent it from being tracked, it would greatly reduce its value.

But fighting crime is not the only use of the new ledger. Bringing the history of diamonds closer to customers could also make vintage diamonds more popular. Kemp believes there is a new market to explore.

Besides diamonds, Everledger is interested in registering other luxury goods on the blockchain. “Our technology can be extended to track any asset that carries a Unique Identifier which is difficult to destroy or replicate,” says the site.

The blockchain is used more and more to secure important data. As CoinFox wrote before, the Honduran government has partnered with Factom to build a secure land title system.

 

Alexey Tereshchenko