Quote from: Beliathon on June 12, 2014, 08:26:51 PM

Quote from: MemoryDealers on March 27, 2012, 06:13:33 AM

I will be getting married this year, and will need to buy a diamond ring.

No, you choose to buy a diamond ring. There is no need. it's a (very wasteful) ritual you are choosing to engage in, like marriage and reproduction.

You could instead choose to do something creative and unique for your loved one, such as personally diving for pearls until you've gathered enough of them to make her a necklace, but you opt for the "oh I'll just spend a bunch of money, so she knows I love her" route.

The exchange of these tokens, these "rare" (not really!) stones for marriage is a tradition that, like capitalism itself, is left over from the feudal age. Now go watch Blood Diamond.

..and then about the DeBeers scam.
Yes, diamonds are not really rare. Their supply is heavily limited by the DeBeers cartel.

A pure red ruby, on the other hand, is *really* rare. And still less expensive than an equally sized diamond. And oh so much more beautiful!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=123503.0
Dave (tiptopgem) is your man, should you want something really special, world-class league, to good prices.
He has many other stones too. Except diamond, as far as I know :-)

Ente