The use cases demonstrated were as diverse as the range of industries represented. Some, such as blockchain logistics networks and AI trading bots, are likely not far off. Other innovations, such as trustless, universal passport control (required only once at the point of origin) and a system wherein self-driving cars would pay other cars to move over in traffic, are perhaps a bit more distant, but still highly feasible.

One of the first industries on the chopping block is financial services. ETHLend, Monetha, and Etherisc were out in full force showcasing their innovative solutions for lending, commerce, and insurance, respectively.

Along the same lines as banking and payments, I have always seen commodities as an obvious use case for blockchain and a “quick win,” to appropriate a phrase from my consulting days. So I was not surprised to see The Royal Mint there pitching their RMG tokens, which are backed by physical gold in Her Majesty’s vaults.

What all these solutions have in common is that they take an existing model and move it onto a blockchain, bringing about huge efficiency gains and a desperately needed wave of democratization and transparency in financial services.

That’s all well and good, but one of the exhibitors, CEDEX, really stood out to me as they have taken it a step beyond blockchain-ification of an existing asset. CEDEX has the potential to transform the global diamond trade, creating an entirely new asset class and turning diamonds from shiny rocks to fungible stores of value.

The New York Diamond Exchange, about as low-tech as it gets.

That’s no easy feat. Diamonds don’t exactly lend themselves to commoditization; they are frustratingly non-interchangeable, varying on so many different dimensions — clarity, color, cut, carat weight — that the average investor has no way to evaluate the market value of a diamond, much less trade it. Trading in diamonds requires a high degree of expertise and a well-established network of contacts. Currently, the only way to trade is in person at a physical diamond bourse, of which there are rather few.

I had a chance to catch up with CEO Saar Levi, who gave me an in-depth explanation of his ambitious undertaking:

CEDEX represents a series of firsts in a notoriously difficult-to-penetrate market that has until now been impervious to any sort of innovation. The first ever online diamond exchange, CEDEX has created a novel algorithm to evaluate the price of a diamond in a fair, consistent fashion, based on its raw specifications. In this way, CEDEX hopes to turn diamonds into a fungible asset, tradable on the exchange using smart contracts.

To ‘upload’ a diamond onto the platform, you submit its GIA number for evaluation by the proprietary algorithm. If you are satisfied with the price, an armored van comes to pick up your diamond and stores it in a secure vault. You are then designated on the blockchain as the owner of said diamond and are free to trade it on the exchange using the native CEDEX token.

This enables a wide range of new use cases, such as trading fractions of a diamond or bundling several diamonds into a single vehicle. At any time, the owner of a diamond may request it be physically delivered to them, but, Levi says, people who do this are kind of missing the point. The delivery option is really intended only as a guarantee, the primary use case being commodities trading.

Admittedly, commodities have never been of much interest to me, but for professional commodities traders or retail investors looking for a stable asset that is likely to appreciate in value over the coming decades, CEDEX seems like a no-brainer.

With global diamond supply expected to peak in 2019, this seems like an opportune moment to launch the platform. That said, the effects of such a fundamental change in any market can be unpredictable. Although the diamond market is no longer a monopoly, many would argue it has become an oligopoly. We know the supply of new diamonds will likely peak in the next few years, but nobody really knows how many existing diamonds are currently out there due to the secretiveness of the industry. But many estimate the total value of all diamonds to be well into the trillions of dollars, said Saar.

Moreover, the general consensus is that diamonds are actually not that rare, and given that their perceived value largely owes itself to an ingenious marketing gimmick, participating in this market may be riskier than some make it out to be.

With the CEDEX platform making it so much easier to commoditize and extract value from diamonds, it is possible one or multiple big players could see an opportunity for quick profit and flood the market with supply to make a grand exit. Granted, if I were one of the whales, I would probably slowly trickle my stock onto the platform to extract maximum value. However, a likely near-term consequence of such an increase in market efficiency is more competition and thus a drop in prices. Or maybe not — stepped-up demand from speculators pouring into the market may well counteract the increase in supply. In reality, there is so little information out there that it’s anyone’s guess what could happen. Regardless, CEDEX stands to profit in either scenario.

While I would probably not trade on CEDEX, I still really admire the thinking that went into this concept so I might buy some tokens. I am looking forward to seeing which other exotic financial products come about as a result of the blockchain revolution.