:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/FOZLA2PVANGCTNIAWFYDVKLVIM.png)
Every time Patrick Paumen pays for something in a store or restaurant, he causes a stir.
This 37-year-old doesn’t need a bank card or his cell phone to pay. Instead, simply puts his left hand near the contactless card reader and the payment is made.
“The reactions I get from the cashiers are priceless!” says Paumen, a security guard from the Netherlands.
You can pay by hand because in 2019 he had a contactless payment microchip implanted under his skin.
“The procedure hurts as much as someone pinching your skin,” says Paumen.
The first time a microchip was implanted in a human was in 1998, but it has only been available for commercial use for the past decade.
Buy a coffee in New York or a cocktail in Rio
When it comes to implantable payment chips, UK-Polish firm Walletmor says it became the first company to put them up for sale last year.
“The implant can be used to pay for a drink on the beach in Rio, a coffee in New York, a haircut in Paris, or at your local supermarket,” says founder and CEO Wojtek Paprota. “It can be used anywhere contactless payments are accepted.”
The Walletmor chip, which It weighs less than a gram and is slightly larger than a grain of rice. It is made up of a small microchip and an antenna covered with a biopolymer, a material of natural origin, similar to plastic.
Paprota adds that it is completely secure, has the necessary permissions, works immediately after being implanted and will stay in place without moving. It also does not require a battery or other power source. The firm says it has sold more than 500 chips.
The technology used by Walletmor is NFC (Near-Field Communication, proximity connection), the Contactless payment system on smartphones. Other payment implants are based on radio frequency identification (RFID), which is the technology typically found in physical contactless debit and credit cards.
Comfort versus privacy
For many of us, the idea of having such a chip implanted in our body can be frighteningbut a 2021 survey of more than 4,000 people in the United Kingdom and the European Union found that 51% of those interviewed would consider it an option.
However, without giving a percentage figure, the report added that “Issues such as invasiveness and security are the main concerns” for respondents.
Patrick Paumen says he has none of these fears.
“Chip implants contain the same kind of technology that people use on a daily basis,” he says, “from key fobs to unlock doors, public transport cards like the Oyster (used on the London Underground) or bank cards with payment functions. no contact”.
“The reading distance is limited by the small antenna inside the implant. The implant must be within the electromagnetic field of a reader RFID [o NFC] compatible. Only when there is a magnetic coupling between the reader and the transponder can the implant be read.”
He adds that he is not concerned that his whereabouts could be traced.
“RFID chips are used on pets to identify them when they are lost“, he says. “But it is not possible to locate them using an RFID chip implant: the missing pet must be physically found. The whole body is then scanned until the chip is found and read.”
However, the problem with such chips (and what causes concern) is if they become increasingly advanced and filled with personal data. And, in turn, if this information is safe and if, in fact, it can be traced.
Fintech or fintech expert Theodora Lau is the co-author of the book “Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading A Business Driven Revolution.”
Lau says the implanted payment chips are just “an extension of the internet of things”. By that he means another new way to connect and exchange data.
However, while he says many people are open to this idea, as it would make paying for things quicker and easier, benefits and risks must be weighed. Especially as embedded chips carry more and more personal information.
“How much are we willing to pay for convenience? Where do we draw the line when it comes to privacy and security? Who will protect the vital infrastructure and the humans that are part of it?” asks Theodora Lau.
The dark side of technology
Nada Kakabadse, a professor of politics, governance and ethics at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School, is also cautious about the future of the most advanced embedded chips.
“There is a dark side to technology that can lead to abuse. For those who do not love individual freedom, it opens new and seductive perspectives for control, manipulation and oppressionKakabadse says.
“And who owns the data? Who has access to it? And is it ethical to chip people like we do pets?” he asks.
The result, he warns, could be “the disempowerment of the many to the benefit of the few.”
Steven Northham, senior professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Winchester, says that concerns are unjustified. In addition to his academic work, he is the founder of the British firm BioTeq, which has been manufacturing contactless and implanted chips of this type since 2017.
His implants are aimed at people with disabilities who can use them to open doors automatically.
“We have daily consultations and we have performed over 500 implants in the UKbut the covid has slowed everything down a bit,” he says.
“This technology has been used in animals for years. They are very small and inert objects. no risks“, he argues.
Back in the Netherlands, Paumen describes himself as a “biohacker”, someone who puts pieces of technology into their body to try and improve their performance. He has 32 implants in total, including door opener chips and embedded magnets.
“Technology keeps evolving, so I keep collecting more,” he says. “My implants enhance my body. I wouldn’t want to live without them,” she says.
“There will always be people who don’t want to change their body. We should respect that, and they should respect us as biohackers.”
Source: Elcomercio
