Russia to sell diamonds in China on WeChat using blockchain technology

The world’s largest diamond producer, Russia's ALROSA, has announced the launch of a blockchain program on one of China's largest social platforms WeChat to help Chinese retailers track the origin of diamonds.

The Russian company said the e-commerce solution will be developed together with the technology company Everledger. The software will demonstrate “the power of blockchain technology,” enabling traceability from mine to consumer.

According to ALROSA, consumers will be offered unprecedented levels of transparency and trust around the origin, characteristics and authenticity of the jewelry they purchase.

“We are delighted to support this WeChat Mini Program with Everledger, as it reinforces our pursuit for sustainable mining and transparent supply chain information. Chinese consumers will be certain of the origin of their diamonds,” ALROSA’s head of diamonds Pavel Vinikhin said.

“We believe demonstrating full provenance of our diamonds on the most popular social media platform will help us to further strengthen our sales base in China,” he added.

Consumers will be able to use the so-called WeChat Mini Program on their smartphones to check an individual diamond’s full provenance and unique certificate information, purchase the diamond using WeChat Pay, and also attest their ownership through the Everledger blockchain platform.

“This is a groundbreaking initiative with the titans of the diamond and internet industries. We’re glad to partner with ALROSA, as we share the same goal of enabling more transparency to the market,” said Evgeny Gokhberg, Head of Europe at Everledger.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section