The Biggest Diamond Producer Alrosa Joins Blockchain Pilot

The world’s largest producer of raw diamonds in carat terms, Alrosa have recently joined the blockchain pilot of fellow industry giant De Beers’ Tracr.

The pilot is a diamond supply chain platform that aims to improve transparency and consumer trust across the diamond value chain from mine to retail.

The system works by creating a digital certificate of all the pertinent attributes of the diamond and its transaction records in an immutable blockchain.

This information is accessible and verifiable by the consumer through a blockchain explorer where they check for its origin and if it is conflict-free.

According to Sergey Ivanov, CEO of Alrosa, the company decided to join the pilot because they believe that cooperation is necessary for the sake of a common goal.

The Tracr platform seeks to complement existing regulations and schemes already existing in the industry that seeks to instill confidence in diamond’s provenance and quality.

The Tracr platform was developed by De Beers together with other industry leaders such as Diacore, Diarough, KGK Group, Rosy Blue NV and Venus Jewel.

De beers was able to successfully test the platform last May by tracking 100 high value diamonds.

After the successful test run, the largest diamond jewelry retailer, Signet Jewerlers joined the pilot Tracr initiative.

This is not the first time foray of Alrosa is into blockchain. Last May Alrosa partnered with KGK Diamonds to work with blockchain startup D1 Mint to tokenize Diamonds which aims to widen the gem’s appeal as an investment asset class and drive consumer demand.

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Details New Specification for Ethereum Devs

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) has recently announced two new specifications for Ethereum developers.

This first announcement is the Enterprise Ethereum Client Specification v2.

The specification is intended to entice developers to code applications that are interoperable with other blockchain.

EEA hopes that this will enable developers to create diverse blockchain solutions that can be alternatives to expensive blockchain solutions owned by big corporations.

This latest contribution came from EEA’s expansive member base including work by the Ethereum Foundation.

The alliance also announced the release of the EEA Off-Chain Trusted Computer Specification v0.5.

This offers programmers a set of standard applications programming interfaces (APIs) that enables them to easily inspect, share and re-use programs.

According to Ron Resnick, EEA executive director, some developers might want to execute some transactions off-chain for privacy, security and performance concerns.

This specification enables them to do so in a safe, secure and encrypted manner.

The EEA hopes this will make off-chain computing easier to write and inspect as well as to make it trust worthy and secure.

The EEA is a global standards organization that is working towards the mass adoption of blockchain technology.

It was formed in February 2017 with memberships coming from various industries and non-profits such as Deloitte, Tesla Foundation and Marquette University.

60% Of Americans Want Crypto To be Treated Like Fiat

Clovr has recently revealed a survey that says 60 percent of American respondents want cryptocurrency to be treated like fiat in political elections.

The blockchain-oriented research firm surveyed 1,023 eligible voters registered in the U.S. for their understanding of what impact virtual currency could exert on the political process which revealed the aforementioned stat with 21 percent of the respondents expressing the opposite view.

A majority of Republicans and Democrats believes that cryptocurrencies are secure enough to be deployed for political purposes with 63 percent of the former and 52 percent of the latter affirming this.

However, only 45 percent of independent voters are comfortable with donations in cryptocurrencies.

Moreover 73 percent of respondents who are aware of cryptocurrencies believe security is not an issue for political donations while 23 percent has concerns.

The survey also reveals that 25 percent of those who participated in the survey expressed their willingness to make a contribution to political campaign if crypto donations were an option.

Over 20 percent of Republican respondents expressed willingness to contribute substantially more if cryptocurrencies were allowed for donations while 16 percent of Democrats and 12 percent of Independent voters expressed the same.

More than 60 percent of respondents across all political affiliations think that crypto donations could be used illegally in the U.S. political system.

All of respondents expressed concerns that politicians and party might misuse donations that are donated via cryptocurrencies.

This is the same percentage across the board when respondents are asked if the use of cryptocurrencies would increase foreign interference in U.S. elections.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Has 400 Crypto Specialists On Staff

As traditional businesses start adopting into cryptocurrencies and blockchain, the need for auditing and tax consultancy services increases as well.

Answering this call of new type of service, some of the biggest firms in the world like Ernst & Young (EY) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have taken in hundreds of clients involved in cryptocurrencies, and to be able to effectively cater to their unique needs, they have hired hundreds of blockchain experts.

It seems that PwC wants to lead the way by bringing in as many as 400 blockchain experts to its fold.

Ralph Weinberger, PwC’s lead in global network assurance methodology, reveals in an interview with Financial Times that they are devoting significant resources to be able to provide audit services not only in cryptocurrencies but also blockchain as well.

He also states that his company sees the enormous potential for blockchain in financial services and have developed strategic and implementation capabilities necessary to help financial institutions, technology companies and startups to take full advantage of blockchain.

He believes that the company’s global team of experience business, technology and regulatory leaders can help its client identify how blockchain can benefit their own organization and how to rapidly move forward.

There are very limited large cryptocurrency tax or auditing consulting firms in the world.

Although there as some smaller companies that have started to offer cryptocurrency and blockchain consulting services there is still lingering doubt if they can serve crypto clients the same complete manner of PwC and other traditional firms who are already upgrading their capabilities to service this emerging and burgeoning industry.

BitGo Adds First Gold-Backed Digital Asset

California-based Bitgo has recently announced the support of its first gold-backed digital asset, Digix (DGX).

This comes at a time when demand for cryptocurrency pegged to the value of gold is increasing.

According to Digix’s CEO, Kai C Chng, being added to Bitgo’s platform places DGX on an industry recognized platform and would serve as a springboard for DGX to be listed on other major exchanges.

Crptocurrency pegged to the value of gold will combine the historical value of it with the modern efficiency of digital currency.

Gold in the form of digital assets are more liquid as buyers won’t be hit by unfair prices and fees that come with moving physical gold around.

Digix (DGX) is a digital asset that is backed by 99.99% gold cast bars from London Bulluion Market Association-approved refiners. One DGX is equivalent to one gram of gold.

Digix is based in Singapore and its tokens, DGX can be redeemed for gold in well established vaults in the country.

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