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:

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Ethical sourcing of minerals is a challenge in a world in which many natural resources are located in countries without strong civil society and worker's protections.  In the diamond trade, this issue is addressed through the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a process established by the United Nations in 2003 to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the wholesale market in rough diamonds.  The process involves countries that import or export rough diamonds issuing paper based certificates attesting that the diamonds are not conflict diamonds, defined as "rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments".  In 2015, over 53000 certificates were created for over $42B in trade value - an average of $8M per certificate. 

Problems with current approach: 

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• 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.

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...list all contributing authors here...