Generations Y and Z, soon to be the world’s most numerous consumers, are concerned about responsibly sourced and sustainable products. But when it comes to purchasing a gold chain or new hoop earrings, how often do they really know what they are buying?

The gold industry’s solution: blockchain.

Established as the driving technology behind cryptocurrencies, in an effort to solve that sector’s traceability shortcomings, blockchain is being considered by luxury jewelry powerhouses and the mining industry alike to guarantee the ethical provenance of gold mined in small operations, what the industry calls artisanal gold.

The regulatory oversight of these smaller operations, which produce 25 percent of the world’s gold supply, is usually spotty or nonexistent, and working conditions often are dangerous. So, the thinking goes, if larger companies and jewelry businesses require such operations to record information on a shared database, which in the blockchain can be viewed but not edited, they then can decide whether to buy output. And such economic pressure could force improvements.

Even though blockchain relies on trust — it is only as good as the quality of the information going in — the system also would paint a digital picture for consumers. It would tell them not only where the gold was mined, but also who did the work, what their working conditions were and how much they were paid.