IBM to Track Jewelry Using Blockchain Technology

The tech giant IBM has signed a consortium with jewelry-based companies to make logistics operations simpler for both parties involved in the process: customers and traders.

The concept of “Ethical Jewelry” has been present for a long time, but there is no reliable model with which to track the supply chain. The new partnership between IBM, Helzberg and other major jewelry companies united through the TrustChain consortium will have among the objectives: to support the jewelry ethics and supply chain improvement through the use of blockchain technology.

The IBM’s Blockchain General Manager, Jason Kellery stated:

“What we are announcing and bringing forward has been in the works for some time. It’s the first end-to-end industry capability on blockchain that has its core in trust”.

The jewelry industry isn’t transparent

At the moment, customers have to rely on the confidence that the jewelry they have purchased has been mined and handled properly. The jewelry industry isn’t at all transparent, that’s why customers don’t benefit from information about those involved in the exploitation and processing chain.

TrustChain was created in order to verify and develop a proper route that should be followed by jewelry, ranging from mining companies to dealers. They ensure that no activity is missing.

“If there is a dispute, instead of calling and following back through the process in a more manual way, you can click on a trusted chain and you’re able to see what happened immediately. That reduces the number of steps in the process, and speeds up what has been a paper-laden and manual effort. Now we can share this [data] in a permissioned network and we can be sure it’s accurate,” explained Jason Kellery.

TrustChain manages to dramatically simplify the process of tracking jewelry. IBM isn’t in its first engagement in implementing blockchain technology in companies’ systems across industries, helping over 400 companies to adopt this tech.