Microchips that allow payment by hand

Dutchman Patrick Paumen, 37, causes a stir whenever he pays for something in a store or restaurant.

He doesn’t need to use cash, bank card or cell phone to pay. Instead, he simply places his left hand near the card reader and the payment is made.

“The reactions I get from the cashiers are priceless,” says Paumen, who works as a security guard.

He is able to pay using just his hand because in 2019 he had a payment microchip injected under his skin.

“The procedure hurts as much as pinching the skin,” says Paumen.

The first time a microchip was implanted in a human being was in 1998, but it was only in the last decade that this technology became commercially available.

Anglo-Polish company Walletmor says it became the first company last year to offer implantable payment chips for sale.

“The implant can be used to buy a drink at the beach in Rio, a cafe in New York, a haircut in Paris — or at the local supermarket,” says founder and chief executive Wojtek Paprota. “It can be used wherever contactless payments are accepted.”

Walletmor’s chip, which weighs less than a gram and is barely bigger than a grain of rice, is made up of a tiny microchip and an antenna encased in a biopolymer – a material of natural origin, similar to plastic.

Paprota says the chip is completely safe, has regulatory approval and works immediately after being implanted. It also doesn’t require a battery or other source. The company says it has sold more than 500 chips.

The technology that Walletmor uses is near-field communication or NFC – the smartphone contactless payment system. Other payment implants are based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which is the similar technology typically found on physical contactless debit and credit cards.

For many of us, the idea of ​​having a chip implanted in our body is horrifying, but a 2021 survey of over 4,000 people in the UK and European Union found that 51% would consider getting an implant.

However, without providing a percentage, the report added that “intrusion and security issues remain a major concern” for respondents.

Paumen says he has none of those concerns.

“Chip implants contain the same kind of technology that people use on a daily basis,” he says, “from key chains to unlocking doors, public transit cards like the Oyster card. [do transporte público de Londres] or bank cards with contactless payment function.”

“The reading distance is limited by the small antenna coil inside the implant. The implant needs to be within the electromagnetic field of an RFID reader.” [ou NFC]. Only when there is a magnetic coupling between the reader and the transponder can the implant be read.”

He adds that he’s not worried about having his whereabouts tracked.

“RFID chips are used on pets to identify them when they are lost,” he says. “But you can’t locate them using an RFID chip implant — the missing animal has to be physically found. Then the entire body is scanned until the RFID chip implant is found and read.”

However, the problem with these chips (and what causes concern) is whether in the future they will become more and more advanced and full of a person’s private data. And whether that information is secure and whether a person can in fact be traced.

Financial Technology expert Theodora Lau is co-author of the book “Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading A Business Driven Revolution”.

She says the implanted payment chips are just “an extension of the internet of things”. In other words, it is a new way of connecting and exchanging data.

However, while she says many people are open to the idea — as it would make paying for things quicker and easier — the benefit must be weighed against the risks. Especially as chips start to carry more personal information.

“How much are we willing to pay for convenience?” she says. “Where do we draw the line when it comes to privacy and security? Who will protect the critical infrastructure and the humans that are part of it?”

Nada Kakabadse, professor of Policy, Governance and Ethics at Reading University’s Henley Business School, is also cautious about the future of more advanced chips.

“There is a dark side to technology that has the potential for abuse,” she says. “For those who don’t love individual freedom, it opens up alluring new visions of control, manipulation and oppression. And who owns the data? Who has access to the data? And is it ethical to chip people like we do pets? “

The result, she warns, could be “the disempowerment of the many for the benefit of the few.”

Steven Northam, professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Winchester, says the concerns are unwarranted. In addition to his academic work, he is the founder of the British company BioTeq, which has been manufacturing wireless implanted chips since 2017.

Their implants are aimed at people with disabilities who can use the chips to automatically open doors.

“We have daily appointments,” he says, “and we’ve performed over 500 implants in the UK — but Covid has caused some reduction in demand.”

“This technology has been used in animals for years,” he argues. “These are very small, inert objects. There are no risks.”

In the Netherlands, Paumen describes himself as a “biohacker”—someone who puts bits of technology into his body to try to improve his performance. He has 32 implants in total, including door-opening chips and built-in magnets.

“The technology keeps evolving, so I keep collecting more,” he says. “My implants improve my body. I wouldn’t want to live without them,” he says.

“There will always be people who don’t want to modify their bodies. We must respect that — and they must respect us as biohackers.”