Diamonds are possibly the biggest scam in human history. Supply and price controlled by a single entity and a marketing campaign to buy a diamond ring for your marriage proposal, which has turned into a worldwide norm. Did you know that before this, people didn't propose with rings whatsoever?
Diamonds are pretty, but if you participate in this industry, you've been taken advantage of.
cjbgkagh 3 days ago [-]
Not even close on the biggest scam in human history, AFAIK their peak revenue was < $10B which wouldn't edge out binary auction scams which are over $10B p.a. And that's an example of a pure scam - how much of modern healthcare / insurance is a scam. If we are to take a less dysfunctional country which has better health outcomes for less money as a baseline I'd say at least 50% of US healthcare is a scam. So half of $4.5T p.a. What about doomed pyramid schemes like Social Security - currently running at $1.35T p.a. Or the fractional reserve banking system etc...
glimshe 3 days ago [-]
I got scammed for a small diamond ring when we got married, but on our 15th anniversary I went lab-grown. I paid 2K for a beautiful ring with a 2.1ct central diamond, fully certified and near flawless, which is a pittance compared to a mined diamond (expect 15K or more). This wasn't cheap in absolute terms, but at least I didn't feel completely ripped off.
My wife LOVED it. Additionally, she got major bragging rights in the informal "bigger is better" competition with friends and family members. Nobody knows it's lab-grown (nobody asked) and you can't tell the difference without unusual procedures or special equipment anyway.
itsthecourier 3 days ago [-]
and even though it isn't detectable.
literally they are looking for imperfections on the natural diamond.
as an engineer this is the difference between a hand sewn shirt and a machine sewn shirt, objectively, why would we pay more for worst quality?
de beers says it's about history and how long that gem stone have existed. but I personally, feel paying 10x for worst quality is a sucker thing to do
ch4s3 3 days ago [-]
Machine sewing isn't superior in all cases, for example hand sewn button holes can look a lot better. The hand sewn holes are cut first and then sewn which doesn't leave frayed edges and has thread all around the hole. These button holes also lay flatter, which again looks nicer.
Basically any fine detail work, or and stitching meant to create a 3 dimensional shape will be superior when done by a skilled tailor than by a machine.
This of course costs more and doesn't matter for t-shirts or other informal garments.
Sn0wCoder 3 days ago [-]
Watched a documentary on one of the first people producing the lab grown diamonds for rings (jewelry) and he ended up needing to go to China where they were already doing the process for drilling and sandpaper type applications. His process was to add flaws of the right type as to make it almost impossible to tell the difference between lab and non-lab diamonds. From what I can tell from it, about half of diamonds being sold as non-lab are actually lab. When we purchased lab was not big yet so guessing its non-lab (not that it matters other than might have over paid). If we (I) were to do it today would just do lab and be done with it as to ensure did not overpay and end up getting lab anyway. From what I can tell no one can tell the difference other than tiny (id markings/ flaws) that can be faked.
I know there are sellers that claim to know the provenance of the diamonds (can trace them back to the mine), but that would be the best place to introduce them into the chain. For every truck that goes out half could come from another truck and half from the ground.
thaumasiotes 3 days ago [-]
> Did you know that before this, people didn't propose with rings whatsoever?
That's only true in the most useless technical sense you can imagine. The practice of giving a ring to your lover is well attested in traditional English ballads that predate the founding of De Beers.
> 'Worth the Wait' is a fresh, authentic campaign connecting the journeys of ‘Zillennial’ couples who are leading the engagement recovery. The campaign captures the incredible journey that natural diamonds take as the ultimate symbols of modern love.
markvdb 3 days ago [-]
"Your love is more important to me than all those that died producing this ring."
I suppose it works for a specific kind of caveman.
Like what the actual fuck does Isabella O'Malley think your average South African, Australian, Botswanan or Russian diamond mine is powered by, and how much energy is required to dig out, move and crush tonnes of rock per carat found? And then dump the spoil in huge sterile mounds you can see from space. And how much was she paid to wring her hands about it?
And if all the rock moving sounds like a lot of energy, it is, around double what a lab grown takes. And it's a damn sight safer for the miners too.
cyberax 2 days ago [-]
> "Gen Z and millennials proudly wear ‘lab-grown’ diamonds, oblivious to the fact they’re made from burning coal in China and India"
Hey! I like my diamonds to be powered by coal from South Africa. They have that nice distinct scent of apartheid!
rad_gruchalski 2 days ago [-]
What do those Chinese diamonds smell of?
mapt 3 days ago [-]
Ha! They think we're getting married.
TacticalCoder 3 days ago [-]
> And De Beers is spending lots of money to try and turn the public against them.
De Beers sells lab-grown diamonds too.
kergonath 3 days ago [-]
Yes, they are hedging their bets. But they make way more money if they keep selling their overpriced natural diamond. They may be planning for the next phase when synthetic diamonds have eaten all the market, but they are going to milk it as much as they can, for as long as they can. They did not grow a conscience when they got threatened.
3 days ago [-]
paxys 3 days ago [-]
Nope, they do not. That whole experiment was killed a while ago.
jdgoesmarching 3 days ago [-]
Do you know something I don’t? Lightbox Jewelry is definitely still around and AFAIK it’s owned by De Beers. My understanding is this exists as an attempt to deflate the cost of lab growns.
Well, I couldn’t read that because Forbes is a nightmare that kept redirecting me to other articles but I’ll believe you. Pretty funny that the scheme didn’t work, I wish I had bought their deflated price stones when I had the chance.
nmridul 3 days ago [-]
Just wondering how much does these machines cost and why we are we not making such machines at large scale ?
Surely diamonds are in demad beyond jewellery. So making these machines at scale and reducing their cost could disrupt these "scammers"..
kergonath 3 days ago [-]
There was someone selling a HPHT machine for growing diamonds for $200k on AliExpress not that long ago. Not quite the same process as in the article, but the result is the same. So the answer is probably "a lot for an individual, but not that much in the grand scheme of things".
> Surely diamonds are in demand beyond jewellery.
Synthetic industrial diamonds are already common, and have been for a while. But they don’t have any purity standard and are very small, so they are much quicker to grow.
> So making these machines at scale and reducing their cost could disrupt these "scammers"..
They are not that expensive but they are not going to disrupt the gemstone diamond business. However, synthetic moissanite is more interesting than industrial diamonds. It is similar to diamond from a structural point of view, but it is half silicon, half carbon instead of pure carbon. It is created using a similar process than diamond, and prices are currently about $10 for 1ct (give or take, clearer are more expensive). Some people prefer it because it is actually more sparkling than diamond. But even if it does not decrease demand for diamonds, it shows how low the prices can get.
thaumasiotes 3 days ago [-]
> Surely diamonds are in dema[n]d beyond jewellery.
Yes, of course, that's what diamond-tipped drills and saws are all about.
Industrial diamonds are already cheap. The machines already exist at large scale. Diamonds are important industrial tools.
Muromec 3 days ago [-]
It's not a scam, it's a proof of work.
ndileas 3 days ago [-]
An important corollary then is "it's not proof of work, it's a scam" :P
HenryBemis 3 days ago [-]
Valentine's day. Halloween. You name the 'celebration', and I will show you a nice marketing scheme behind it. Latest BS trend after "Cyber Monday" is the "Travel Tuesday" one which I've heard for the first time in my life a few days ago.
And then we will go to (something that starts with w....) "Water Wednesday" (everybody goes swimming), "Tattoos Thursday" (self explanatory), "Flip-board Friday" (we have meetings at home) and so on.
Marketing works. Marketers/advertisers know how to trigger women (who make the vast majority of choices in purchasing). They fall for that shit all the time. Which guy wants to spend 1-2-3-10 salaries on a rock? Which guy wants to spend stupid amounts of money for decapitated/rotting heads of plants (aka flowers)? Flowers are beautiful, yes! Plant the thing, let it grow, see and smell it every day.
Stupid vanity and stupid emptiness!!
EDIT: what the hell is going on with Halloween in countries very unrelated to the custom??
verisimi 3 days ago [-]
> Diamonds are possibly the biggest scam in human history.
> To the naked eye, the lab-grown diamond looks identical to a natural stone. GIA, an education and standards nonprofit founded in 1931, uses the same criteria to grade both kinds of stones, said chief laboratory and research officer Tom Moses.
> But Moses *says* he can spot the difference using special equipment: Natural diamonds *often* have a different growth structure. They also *may* have trace amounts of nitrogen trapped inside.
saghm 3 days ago [-]
I don't see how this refutes the idea of the diamond industry being a scam. The only purpose for diamonds in jewelry is aesthetics, and if it's literally impossible for even an expert to tell the difference between natural and lab-grown without using special equipment, it sounds like the lab-grown ones are perfect at what they're actually being used for, so why wouldn't it be better to get the cheaper ones that are sourced ethically?
verisimi 3 days ago [-]
It wasn't a refutation of the industry being a scam.
TacticalCoder 3 days ago [-]
> Diamonds are possibly the biggest scam in human history. Supply and price controlled by a single entity...
De Beers isn't the only entity producing lab-grown diamonds. There's competition and hence prices of lab-grown diamonds have been divided by 3 in less than ten years.
The interest in diamonds and trying to recreated diamonds predates De Beers by centuries.
> Diamonds are pretty
Like gold. Shiny gold is pretty too. Cleopatra already fancied that. Humans are humans and like shiny things, especially females.
Females birds of paradise for example shall pick the male birds of paradise we humans tend to find the most harmonious color-wise. Go figure but it's everywhere in the animal kingdom.
Something something about evolution / mating / etc. Not everything is subjective.
> and a marketing campaign to buy a diamond ring for your marriage proposal
I see many single women with diamond ear rings. Diamonds inside their watch. Necklace. etc.
Something could be said too about consumption and all the throwaway items we have (like smartphones) vs one of the hardest known material on earth which can be passed down to your kids and then grand kids while still keeping some value and at the same time being... Shiny.
YetAnotherNick 3 days ago [-]
How's it different than brands. People have been paying orders of magnitude more if the product came from a brand that they like.
mverv 3 days ago [-]
Great visual story. It would have been cool if they had also included the High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) method, which is closer to how diamonds are naturally formed. However, I imagine it would have been harder to "show".
Animats 3 days ago [-]
Here's the high pressure, high temperature process, in China.[1]
So, lab-grown diamonds are like broiler chickens but with the same care and go through the same process as natural diamonds.
TuringTourist 3 days ago [-]
Well the process isn't quite the same, they are missing the immense value-add of substantial human suffering in their creation.
marricks 3 days ago [-]
And, most importantly, the artificial scarcity imposed by a single company.
Muromec 3 days ago [-]
Which is the actual product.
rvnx 3 days ago [-]
and also lab-grown diamonds have a different reaction to light.
Natural diamonds typically emit blue fluorescence, while some lab-grown diamonds may show stronger, inconsistent, or different colors (e.g., orange, green, or yellow).
After turning off the UV light, observe if the diamond continues to glow (phosphorescence), natural diamonds don't.
red_trumpet 3 days ago [-]
> the diamond continues to glow (phosphorescence), natural diamonds don't.
Except some famous natural ones, like the Hope Diamond[1] do show phosphorescence.
Natural diamonds have variety as well. Just not the ones sold in jewelry stores, because they all generally come from the same DeBeers-owned mines. Diamonds are gemstones that can be found all over the world, with each location producing stones with their own unique properties.
shahzaibmushtaq 3 days ago [-]
I was referring to the refining process, not the mining process.
simonebrunozzi 2 days ago [-]
Obligatory reference: [0]: have you ever tried to sell a diamond? (1982)
Diamonds are pretty, but if you participate in this industry, you've been taken advantage of.
My wife LOVED it. Additionally, she got major bragging rights in the informal "bigger is better" competition with friends and family members. Nobody knows it's lab-grown (nobody asked) and you can't tell the difference without unusual procedures or special equipment anyway.
literally they are looking for imperfections on the natural diamond.
as an engineer this is the difference between a hand sewn shirt and a machine sewn shirt, objectively, why would we pay more for worst quality?
de beers says it's about history and how long that gem stone have existed. but I personally, feel paying 10x for worst quality is a sucker thing to do
Basically any fine detail work, or and stitching meant to create a 3 dimensional shape will be superior when done by a skilled tailor than by a machine.
This of course costs more and doesn't matter for t-shirts or other informal garments.
I know there are sellers that claim to know the provenance of the diamonds (can trace them back to the mine), but that would be the best place to introduce them into the chain. For every truck that goes out half could come from another truck and half from the ground.
That's only true in the most useless technical sense you can imagine. The practice of giving a ring to your lover is well attested in traditional English ballads that predate the founding of De Beers.
Compare https://mainlynorfolk.info/peter.bellamy/songs/thedarkeyedsa... ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovay
Heck, the ring in Dark-Eyed Sailor is undescribed, but the ring in Sovay is called out as a diamond ring.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221111150414/http://ballads.bo...
From the article:
> The Washington Post visited Austin-based Clarity Diamond, one of the few companies to make lab diamonds in the United States.
Here's a random De Beers ad campaign touting the supremacy of "natural diamonds" – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlapaTCpa78
> 'Worth the Wait' is a fresh, authentic campaign connecting the journeys of ‘Zillennial’ couples who are leading the engagement recovery. The campaign captures the incredible journey that natural diamonds take as the ultimate symbols of modern love.
I suppose it works for a specific kind of caveman.
Like what the actual fuck does Isabella O'Malley think your average South African, Australian, Botswanan or Russian diamond mine is powered by, and how much energy is required to dig out, move and crush tonnes of rock per carat found? And then dump the spoil in huge sterile mounds you can see from space. And how much was she paid to wring her hands about it?
And if all the rock moving sounds like a lot of energy, it is, around double what a lab grown takes. And it's a damn sight safer for the miners too.
Hey! I like my diamonds to be powered by coal from South Africa. They have that nice distinct scent of apartheid!
De Beers sells lab-grown diamonds too.
https://lightboxjewelry.com/
> Surely diamonds are in demand beyond jewellery.
Synthetic industrial diamonds are already common, and have been for a while. But they don’t have any purity standard and are very small, so they are much quicker to grow.
> So making these machines at scale and reducing their cost could disrupt these "scammers"..
They are not that expensive but they are not going to disrupt the gemstone diamond business. However, synthetic moissanite is more interesting than industrial diamonds. It is similar to diamond from a structural point of view, but it is half silicon, half carbon instead of pure carbon. It is created using a similar process than diamond, and prices are currently about $10 for 1ct (give or take, clearer are more expensive). Some people prefer it because it is actually more sparkling than diamond. But even if it does not decrease demand for diamonds, it shows how low the prices can get.
Yes, of course, that's what diamond-tipped drills and saws are all about.
Industrial diamonds are already cheap. The machines already exist at large scale. Diamonds are important industrial tools.
And then we will go to (something that starts with w....) "Water Wednesday" (everybody goes swimming), "Tattoos Thursday" (self explanatory), "Flip-board Friday" (we have meetings at home) and so on.
Marketing works. Marketers/advertisers know how to trigger women (who make the vast majority of choices in purchasing). They fall for that shit all the time. Which guy wants to spend 1-2-3-10 salaries on a rock? Which guy wants to spend stupid amounts of money for decapitated/rotting heads of plants (aka flowers)? Flowers are beautiful, yes! Plant the thing, let it grow, see and smell it every day.
Stupid vanity and stupid emptiness!!
EDIT: what the hell is going on with Halloween in countries very unrelated to the custom??
> To the naked eye, the lab-grown diamond looks identical to a natural stone. GIA, an education and standards nonprofit founded in 1931, uses the same criteria to grade both kinds of stones, said chief laboratory and research officer Tom Moses.
> But Moses *says* he can spot the difference using special equipment: Natural diamonds *often* have a different growth structure. They also *may* have trace amounts of nitrogen trapped inside.
De Beers isn't the only entity producing lab-grown diamonds. There's competition and hence prices of lab-grown diamonds have been divided by 3 in less than ten years.
The interest in diamonds and trying to recreated diamonds predates De Beers by centuries.
> Diamonds are pretty
Like gold. Shiny gold is pretty too. Cleopatra already fancied that. Humans are humans and like shiny things, especially females.
Females birds of paradise for example shall pick the male birds of paradise we humans tend to find the most harmonious color-wise. Go figure but it's everywhere in the animal kingdom.
Something something about evolution / mating / etc. Not everything is subjective.
> and a marketing campaign to buy a diamond ring for your marriage proposal
I see many single women with diamond ear rings. Diamonds inside their watch. Necklace. etc.
Something could be said too about consumption and all the throwaway items we have (like smartphones) vs one of the hardest known material on earth which can be passed down to your kids and then grand kids while still keeping some value and at the same time being... Shiny.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkMkcetAiV4
Natural diamonds typically emit blue fluorescence, while some lab-grown diamonds may show stronger, inconsistent, or different colors (e.g., orange, green, or yellow).
After turning off the UV light, observe if the diamond continues to glow (phosphorescence), natural diamonds don't.
Except some famous natural ones, like the Hope Diamond[1] do show phosphorescence.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond
[0]: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-yo...