Readers may recall our interview with Toby Hoenisch, the CEO of OneBit, which uses near-field communication technology to utilize the MasterCard payment network with a cell phone application.A user with OneBit can pay anywhere the MasterCard swipe system is in use, using Bitcoin.For many, an application like this will change the conversation regarding Bitcoin.It will no longer be about whether or not a certain store accepts bitcoins because the app executes the payment in the local currency.The new alpha version of the application is currently being tested in the various districts that Hoenisch and his company believe will have the most use of it.The company’s website has a background video that depicts a user paying for a sandwich at Subway using the OneBit application.It seems to go off without a hitch, as many Subway locations have long since integrated NFC payments.At the same time, there have in the past been grumblings about the security of NFC cards and terminals.A common hack for a time, and possibly still in practice, is the act of remotely reading an NFC card’s details using a tablet and some specialized software.

Simply getting the details of a OneBit card would not be enough to steal bitcoins.As with anything, the biggest contributor to fraud would be the user’s willingness to keep unnecessary amounts of Bitcoin in the OneBit wallet.It is never recommended to keep significant sums of the cryptocurrency in the hands of someone else, no matter how much one may trust them.The company will be announcing a more public version of the software in the coming months.Bionics aren’t confined to Sci-fi movies anymore.As technology progresses, people may soon become part machines, thanks to various kinds of implants.While that day is still far away, a recent event in Ukraine gives a sneak peek into the future.A demonstration of the new ‘Dangerous Things’ xNT Implant at a conference was well received and covered by few media outlets as well.Dangerous Things xNT Implant is a bio-implantable NFC chip that can be used to store any information, including credit card information, key card data, Bitcoin cryptographic keys and more.

The chip was demonstrated by a German Professor Patrick Cramer during the Black Sea Summit 2016 held recently in Kiev.The Black Sea Summit is an annual conference on latest innovations and technologies.The Dangerous things xNT Implant was one of the main attractions at the event.bitcoin dispenserAccording to media reports, the implantation procedure was carried out for the first time in Ukraine.buy bitcoin poloniexThe $99 NFC tag enclosed in a cylindrical biocompatible glass comes preloaded in an injection syringe assembly.my litecoin wallet addressMany participants at the event have reportedly gotten themselves these implants.bitcoin mining usb keyThis is not the first time someone has tried to create and implantable NFC device.bitcoin rate in ghana

Last year, a biohacker named Patric Lanhed implanted himself with a tiny NFC chip with Bitcoin wallet address stored in it.He is also said to have successfully made a transfer to his wallet by scanning the implanted chip against his skin to read the wallet key.bitcoin founder net worthPatric Lanhed and his collaborator Juanjo Tara had created a custom software to enable this transaction.There are also examples of many Biohackers having NFC tags embedded in under their skin, programmed for various tasks.One of the publications mentions a woman who had her access card information embedded into an implant.With that implant, she can open doors at her office by waving her hand over the reader instead of using a regular NFC keycard.NFC tags are speculated to offer an additional security for cryptographic keys.People can save their Bitcoin wallet’s private keys in their implants, ensuring its safely at all times.

Researchers and Biohackers are working on ways to enable people to link their credit cards to the implants so that they can pay directly at shops by swiping their hand over NFC-enabled POS terminals.The Dangerous Things xNT Implant is a product of a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.The project leader Amal Graafstra along with his team mate Dana Burnidge raised $30619, which was around 283% more than their original target of $8000 to create the product.In the past two years, they have worked on the implants and a mobile app to manage them.We hope that those involved in the implantable technology projects come up with something amazing involving Bitcoin and implants soon.Any serious Bitcoin user will preach the benefits of cold storage: keeping the bulk of your bitcoins offline somewhere, like on an encrypted USB stick, or even printed on a piece of paper.The idea is that by keeping that data offline, it’s far less susceptible to being hacked.So, the theory goes: what could be safer than keeping it inside your own body?

For the last 10 days, Martijn Wismeijer, a Dutch entrepreneur and Bitcoin enthusiast, has lived with an NFC chip embedded in each hand.One has data that he’s constantly overwriting; he can put his contact details in simply by having another person scan his hand with an NFC-enabled phone.But the other contains the encrypted private key to his wallet."I use it for cold storage, but it's not cold because it's 37 degrees Celsius inside my body!"he told Ars over Skype on Friday.Specifically, he has an "NFC Type 2 compliant NTAG216 RFID chipset" embedded in a tiny glass capsule (2 millimeters by 12 millimeters) that was injected into the fleshy part of his hand between his thumb and index finger.Each capsule can hold just 880 bytes of data, which is more than enough for a cold storage wallet., a Washington State-based website that sells to hobbyists and biohackers.3, 2014, Wismeijer had it installed by Tom van Oudenaarden of Piercing Studio Utrecht after his own Amsterdam doctor refused."My doctor doesn't like it!"

"He didn't want to do it, he just wants to make people better, and I’m not sick—I just want this thing inside my body.He was right, so that's why you need body manipulation artists."So how does Wismeijer actually use his hand-based system in practice?He gave me an example: as the CEO of Mr.Bitcoin, an Amsterdam-based firm that sets up Bitcoin ATMs in the Netherlands and Belgium, he frequently needs to stock bitcoins on those machines."We minimize our risk by storing most of them in cold storage and only when we see a lot of happening, do we transfer [to a hot wallet]," he said.Using Shamir’s Shared Secret—a cryptographic technique to split a secret amongst different people—Wismeijer and his colleagues have to provide a certain number of their private keys to unlock the company’s master cold storage wallet.They can either scan the NFC tags with a USB dongle, or from an NFC-enabled phone."To transfer funds to our network, we have to scan our tags, including my hand, which provides part of an encrypted private key, and then only then the phone will transfer to the hot wallet," he said.

"If you had a will, and everyone would have a will, you could create a shared secret and you could use that to execute the will.You can't find such a solution, there's no notary involved, it will revolutionize asset management."Of course, this isn’t the first time that people have installed NFC, or their predecessors (RFID) tags inside their own bodies.Back in 2004, a nightclub in Barcelona offered to implant RFID tags into the shoulders of a select group of customers so they could use it as a digital wallet rather than carry cash or credit cards.(Clearly, it hasn’t been met with widespread adoption.)Eventually, Wismeijer would like to replace his home door locks with NFC tags so that he can open his front door with just his hand. has been doing for nearly a decade.He too has the NFC chips installed in the webbing of his hands, and has $200 Samsung Ezon door locks on his house."Since 2005 that's what I've primarily been using it for, and I've been really happy," he told Ars."It unlocks when I reach for the doorknob, and I go in a little high, and it opens."