Intro
As RWA (Real World Asset tokenization) becomes one of the hottest sectors in the global Web3 industry, GemsBase announced its global launch, positioning itself as the infrastructure protocol layer for the gemstone sector. The project aims to address long-standing structural issues in a trillion-dollar market: trust, liquidity, and efficiency. We spoke with GemsBase Founder & CEO Miles Caradoc to understand how a veteran with experience plans to reshape the global gemstone value chain with blockchain.
Q1: Could you start by sharing your background? Why did you decide this was the right time to launch GemsBase?
Miles Caradoc:
My career has always revolved around supply chain digitalization and the gemstone industry. I worked with luxury and mining clients to experiment with RFID and blockchain, optimizing cross-border settlement processes. Later, I was responsible for digital assets and provenance, building a blockchain-based identity system for gemstones and piloting stablecoin settlement.
These experiences showed me the industry’s most pressing problems — trust gaps, slow capital turnover, and long transaction chains. Why now? Because both the technology and the market are finally ready. Stablecoins are already widely used in Africa and Southeast Asia, and technologies like cross-chain interoperability and zero-knowledge proofs are maturing. It’s the right moment to bring gemstones into the Web3 world.
Q2: What do you see as the biggest problems in the traditional gemstone industry?
Miles Caradoc:
At the core, two things: trust is costly, and capital efficiency is low.
For a buyer to verify the origin and authenticity of a stone, they rely on centralized institutions — expensive and time-consuming — and the information isn’t globally shared, which makes cross-border trade difficult.
On top of that, gemstones can’t be easily fractionalized. Trading or moving them across borders is especially hard, so a lot of value stays locked. High-cost, slow cross-border settlement makes capital efficiency across the industry extremely low. These are exactly what GemsBase aims to fix.
Q3: Where does GemsBase bring core innovation?
Miles Caradoc:
Our biggest innovation is creating a unique on-chain identity for every stone — the Gem ID. It records physical characteristics, lab certifications, and transaction history, functioning as an incorruptible “digital passport.” We work with leading labs worldwide so that when they perform physical certification, key data is uploaded on-chain at the source.
From there, gemstones can be tokenized — either as 1:1 full ownership tokens or as pooled assets in fund-like structures, which lowers the investment barrier. With stablecoin settlement and cross-chain interoperability, transactions can finalize in under a minute at negligible cost. Put together, this is real “gemstone financialization.”
Q4: How does your business model balance technology and profitability?
Miles Caradoc:
We’re not a retail marketplace — we’re the protocol layer. In simple terms, we provide the standards and infrastructure that miners, labs, custodians, and retailers can plug into. Our native token, GBASE, has governance and incentive functions. We also charge reasonable fees for certification and settlement services.
More importantly, through open APIs and SDKs, we want partners to build applications on the GemsBase protocol, creating network effects. You could say we’re modeling ourselves after “the of the gemstone industry” — building the standards first, and letting the ecosystem grow on top.
Q5: Compliance is always mentioned as a challenge in RWA. How does GemsBase address this?
Miles Caradoc:
Compliance is our top priority. We’ve set up an R&D and compliance hub in San Francisco, while also pursuing regulatory pathways in Switzerland, Singapore, and Dubai — markets that are more open to innovation.
Our approach is clear: all payments and settlements are done through regulated stablecoin networks, strictly following AML/KYC requirements. Every redeemable gemstone is backed by professional custodial warehouses and insured, ensuring safety and transparency.
Of course, regulatory requirements vary by jurisdiction, so we use a modular architecture that can adapt locally. It’s complicated, but it’s the only right path forward.
Q6: Can you tell us about the GemsBase team and advisory board?
Miles Caradoc:
Our team is international. Our CTO was a core architect. Our CFO comes from a large Singaporean family office, where he managed over $2 billion in assets. On the advisory side, we’re fortunate to have; one of Bitcoin’s early core developers; and. We’ve also brought in private banking and insurance veterans. Together they bring expertise in capital markets, blockchain security, insurance structuring, and gemstone industry networks.
Q7: What is your roadmap for the next three to five years?
Miles Caradoc:
We’ve laid out three phases. First, establish the Gem ID standard and deliver the first tokenization use cases. Second, expand into major producing regions, building cross-border trading networks and launching compliance pilots in key jurisdictions. Third, position GemsBase as a cross-industry RWA standard, enabling interoperability with assets like art, real estate, and precious metals.
It sounds ambitious, but we believe it’s achievable because the market demand is already there.
Q8: Finally, what change are you personally most excited about GemsBase bringing?
Miles Caradoc:
What excites me most is that gemstones will no longer be confined to jewelry showcases or private vaults. They can become a true asset class in the global capital markets. Every gemstone carries a story and intrinsic value — they shouldn’t be locked away or accessible only to a few.
Through GemsBase, we aim to give each stone a verifiable global digital identity, making it a new anchor of trust — and the next trillion-dollar financial asset class.
Company: GemsBase Foundation
Contact: Media Relations
Email: media@gemsbase.io
Address: Dubai, UAE
