Some people in Sweden do not need to show their phone to present a vaccine passport. Extending the dystopian fashion, they can have their vaccine information on a microchip implanted under the skin.
Epicenter, a company specializing in rice grain-sized subdermal microchips, showcased an implant that can store Covid vaccine passports that can be read using the near-field communication (NFC) protocol.
The microchip can store other things like bus passes, office IDs, and gym membership.
“Implants are very versatile technology that can be used for many different things, and right now it is very convenient to have Covid passport always accessible on your implant,” Epicenter’s “chief disruption officer” Hannes Sjoblad told Ruptly.
“In case your phone runs out of battery, it’s always accessible to you. So of course, that’s how we use this technology today, next year we are going to use it for something else,” he added.
The chip can be implanted in the arm or between the index finger and thumb. According to Sjoblad, the process is reversible.
Digital cultures researcher Moa Petersen, about 6,000 people in Sweden have a chip in their hand. But not all are for Covid passports.
A few weeks ago the Swedish government announced that Covid passports will be required for all events with more than 100 people.
The leader of UK’s implant firm BioTeq Steven Northam believes implants are going to be mainstream in the next decade. “In 10-15 years, microchipped humans will be an everyday occurrence,” he said in a previous interview with Metro.co.uk.
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