Those behind the microchips — the size of a rice grain and implanted via a syringe — are working to access other parts of Europe. Eric Larsen, who leads Biohax Italia, is waiting for approval in Italy from medical centres and the health ministry. He said he expects to implant a chip into about 2,500 people in the first six to eight months in Milan and Rome.
Even without health ministry certification, Biohax Italia has already been able to embed these chips into a few hundred people with the help of a medical centre. “It is a step towards the future... It is extremely futuristic although it is already happening. This technology was born to help us, to give us small 'superpowers'," Larsen told Euronews. But COVID-19 could make people more apprehensive about their business, Larsen said, due to public concern about the contact tracing applications introduced by governments during the pandemic.
“We are seeing that a lot of people in Italy are not happy [with] adding a GPS or something that can track our movement. That might be a danger for us,” he explained. “We are not tracking movements we don’t have a GPS inside but I think that a lot of people are not aware of that.”
Removing the need for a wallet:
Swedish IT solutions planner Martin Lewin uses the two microchips in his hand for things like logging into the computer, setting the office alarm and launching his LinkedIn profile. But using them as an alternative to cash or card payments is expected to be the tipping point for the technology.
“It’s no different than just removing the need for a wallet, removing the need for a keychain, removing the need for all these disconnected tokens that only create risk because if you lose them you lose your identity,” said former body piercer Jowan Österlund, who is behind the start-up Biohax International. “If you lose your key you won’t get into your house. If someone else gets your key they can basically claim your house in some countries.”
In Sweden, the microchips can be used as a train ticket. But Lewin hopes that he will soon be able to make payments with them. “That’s what I hope will become a basic function," he told Euronews. "I look forward to an ecosystem where the chip is able to provide all types of access. Where your identity can be carried with you in a simple way." But the technology hasn't taken off as quickly as he expected. "It’s taken longer than what I thought and hoped. It was three years ago that I got my chip implanted. It looks like it’ll be another year before the chip will work for making payments." -Full Report
