i tought they could already make artificial diamonds relatively easily?
I want diamond optics for my camera, unless that is stupid for the physics of optics.
I’d like one lab diamond pocket knife pls.
A diamond gets its value from human suffering. The more pain and suffering to obtain it the more value is placed on it.
Diamonds actually get their value because a single entity (DeBeers) owns something like 80% of all diamonds in the market.
They dictate the price by throttling supply and naming a price. People are willing to pay as a flex but you are right in that DeBeers markets “real” diamonds and “lab grown”.
It’s mostly done to capture different market segments, and to keep up the value of their stockpile of nearly unlimited diamonds already mined by people who are essentially slaves.
That being said, if there was a market for diamonds soaking in vials of oppressed orphan blood (with provenance of course) DeBeers would absolutely sell it.
If lab grown diamonds became significantly cheaper than slave mined diamonds, DeBeers would still likely keep their mines open to maintain control of the market. Even if they successfully moved consumers on to lab diamonds - can’t have someone else get diamond market share.
