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Bio-Implantable Bitcoin Wallets Becoming a Popular Storage Solution

Making a bitcoin payment with a body part may not be too unusual in the future. 

Also Read: Accenture Exec Says Bitcoin Immutability Is a Flaw, Not a Virtue

At this year’s Black Sea Summit in Kiev, an NFC, bio-implantable chip was demonstrated to attendees. The presentation of the Dangerous things xNT Implant showed how the product can store bitcoin keys and credit card data.

Dangerous Things xNT Implant 

When implanted under a person’s skin, the chip can facilitate a number of NFC financial transactions, including bitcoin payments.

The company has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund their project. So far, the team has raised over $30,000 USD, breaking their targeted goal of $8,000.

At a price of $99, the bio-chip comes contained in a cylindrical biocompatible glass — stored in a syringe ready for injection. Developers claim the xNT Implant is the first NFC-compliant, implantable RFID tag on the market. When a user wants to pay for an item, they scan the body part holding the device over any NFC-enabled point-of-sale application.

The xNT tag comes with its own beta Android app that features upcoming releases to the platform. The bio-chip assembly kit is EO gas-sterilized, and ships with an installation guide to help local body piercing professionals or medical practitioners inject the device.

The Seattle-based founders of Dangerous Things, Amal Graafstra and Dana Burnidge, are cyborg fans, and hope bio-hacking becomes mainstream in the near future.

Bitcoin-Based, Bio-Implantable Chips Have Been Around for a While

Over the past couple of years, several Bitcoin supporters have demonstrated bio-chip proof-of-concepts loaded with cryptocurrency.

For instance, back in June, a news report detailed the story of Meow-Ludo, founder of Biofoundry. Meow-Ludo integrated bitcoin keys and credit card information into an NFC chip implanted in his thumb, which held 868 bytes of data.

In 2014, Dutch entrepreneur Martijn Wismeijer made headlines after he implanted two bitcoin wallets in each of his hands. The NFC Type 2 compliant chipsets contained 880 bytes of data. Wismeijer told press that one hand was for cold storage, the other a hot wallet for purchases.

Romania’s BTCXChange Discontinues Bitcoin Exchange Service

Ever since relaunching the platform since August of 2015, things have been rocky, to say the least. For now, it remains unclear if there was a lack of volume, or a lack of investment to keep operations going.

Running Bitcoin exchanges requires a lot of time, effort, and money. But despite a lot of hard work, regulatory issues can always force a shutdown. Romania’s BTCXChange has shut down its services for good. Users had until yesterday to withdraw all of their funds. It is the second time BTCXChange is shut down, albeit it remains to be seen if they will return.

The announcement about BTCXchange shutting down was posted on the website in August of 2016. Users were advised to move all of their funds off the platform by September 12. Horeo Oradea Vuşcan, the owner of BTCXchange, has taken the decision to shut down the platform the second time.

Game Over for BTCXchange

To be more precise, he is looking for a new buyer to take over the domain and exchange platform. For now, it remains unclear as to why this decision was taken. We do know Vuşcan had plans to sell the company quite some time ago. Until a  buyer was found, he kept the platform up and running, until very recently.

The platform was initially launched in December of 2014 and shut down for the time one year later. The reason for that decision was due to a disagreement between the CEO and its main programmer. Some people may remember how this caused Vuşcan to rebuild BTCXChange from the ground up, which took nearly eight months to complete.

Ever since relaunching the platform since August of 2015, things have been rocky, to say the least. For now, it remains unclear if there was a lack of volume or a lack of investment to keep operations going. The sale of this platform will not be easy either, as its colorful history may not attract any serious offers.

One topic of consideration ish own Bitcoin is still not regulated in Romania. Although this doesn’t mean cryptocurrency is not allowed the country, it makes Bitcoin less appealing. While Vuşcan is still positive about the future of Bitcoin, he is not eager to handle all of the responsibility that comes with running an exchange.