Introduction

The Blockchain and Smart Contracts Discussion Group was launched in July 2016. This report from the group offers recommendations and observations to Kantara Initiative covering the following scope:

...

• Kimberley Process Certificates have a known forgery problem. As paper based certificates without modern anti-counterfeit technology, they are vulnerable to fraudulent issuance.  There is no verification process for confirming the authenticity, and every country has their own format for certificates.  The KP enforcement pagelists several countries of caution whose certificates should not be blindly trusted.
• Due to the definition of "conflict diamond", the arrangement protects the rights of governments to control the diamond trade, rather than protecting the working conditions of legitimately mined diamonds.  The world bank report on conditions in the extractive industries shows numerous reports of fully authorized mining operations with appalling working conditions.  Beyond the scope of the KPCS, there are efforts, funded by Apple and by the German civil society group GIZ, to promote the registration of small scale miners for their protection and to support documentation of supply chain all the way to the source (source: 2014 Diamond Development Initiative Annual Report).  The Maendeleo Diamond Standards are an effort towards the certification of KPCS approved mining locations to ensure that they are free from government-led violence and abuses, and do not undertake mining operations or related activities in any protected or conservation areas are eligible for certification. 

Ways for blockchain to improve current approach:

• import/export transactions recorded on a public ledger allowing the attestation to be done in a verifiable and accessible manner
• issue blockchain based credentials to support identity registration of small scale miners, record chain of custody of diamonds from source to export 

CommonAccord

...owner: Jim...

CommonAccord is an initiative to create global codes of legal transacting by codifying and automating legal documents, including contracts, permits, organizational documents, and consents. We anticipate that there will be codes for each jurisdiction, in each language. For international dealings and coordination, there will be at least one "global" code.

...

...list all contributing authors here...