Antwerp, 3 May 2021 – HB Antwerp and Blockchain Solutions are pleased to announce their collaboration towards more transparency in the diamond industry. The collaboration leverages blockchain technology to provide more security and transparency over traceability data. By doing so, HB Antwerp is able to provide customers with real publicly verifiable diamond history information.
All key traceability steps of the diamond history – from the mine to the final polished result – will be recorded in an immutable way on a public blockchain. This data will be certified by HB Antwerp which will be held warrant for the veracity of the information. Customers will therefore receive trustable traceability information as they will have the possibility to verify data integrity directly on the public blockchain.
The particularity of the technical solution brought by Blockchain Solutions is that it leverages the public blockchain Bitcoin (the platform, not the coin) and open-source standards. Therefore, the customers will be able to actually verify on the blockchain rather than to have to pass through a third party. Moreover, as the registration on the Bitcoin platform is public and immutable, HB Antwerp itself – or any other third party – will not be able to modify the record afterwards. The use of the Bitcoin platform and open-source standards therefore reinforces the trust that customers can have in the data.
Shai de Toledo, Managing Partner of HB Antwerp comments: “HB Antwerp is committed to bring more transparency to the diamond industry. Thanks to our very integrated model and high-tech DNA, we worked hard over the last 18 months, to leverage this inhouse technology, and to bring this vision to life with HB Ledger.”
Isabelle Bonnet, CEO of Blockchain Solutions comments: “Traceability and authenticity are two domains in which blockchain technology can add a lot of value along the supply chain by enabling more transparency in a highly secured manner. HB Antwerp’s use case is very powerful in the way it is transforming a centuries old industry towards more transparency. We saw a great adequacy with this ambition and the openness and transparency inherent to the Bitcoin platform. We are very proud to have implemented a truly open solution that leverages blockchain for what it does best, increase trust by making data actually verifiable.”
This collaboration paves the way for a new paradigm in the luxury industry, as HB Antwerp commits to diamond history on the Bitcoin blockchain.
About HB Antwerp
HB Antwerp turns the diamond supply chain upside down starting with the customer. Using technology, we bring simplicity and transparency to a typically complex supply chain. Everything happens within the HB ecosystem in Antwerp, backed with the latest technologies and tracked with blockchain making it 100% transparent from diamond mine to market.
About Blockchain Solutions
Blockchain Solutions allows companies to exploit the potential blockchain with simplicity. Blockchain Solutions customers are visionary companies that understand that blockchain can be a tremendous asset but are also aware of the complexity of the subject. Blockchain Solutions supports them with an integrated offering: from identifying use cases to implementing large scale blockchain solutions.
