In the “old” days, circa 2012, news reports covered the phenomena of ordinary citizens tattooing themselves in prominent areas of their bodies, e.g. their forehead, with URL’s of e-commerce sites. Sadly, many of those sites had not survived the dot com gold rush, leaving the human billboard speaking about a brand that no one could find.
Fast forward to today’s more sophisticated society and you’ll find reports of a man injecting a chip into his hands to store his Bitcoin. Good Bitcoin security practices apparently dictate that some form of “cold storage” be arranged. In other words, it’s recommended to keep your Bitcoin backed up in an offline site. What better than to have it not just on a thumb drive in your pocket, easily lost for many people, but to have that crypto-currency planted firmly in the body, far-removed from the average pick-pocket?
The NFC chip injected into the hand of Martijn Wismeijer, a “Dutch entrepreneur and Bitcoin enthusiast” was reported to be slightly painful upon injection, but otherwise has utility in being able to transfer Bitcoin between offline body storage and online accounts.
NFC chips have been used for years to facilitate not just payment, but also for identification, security and access. Now, the limits are being pushed just a bit further.