A subcutaneous implant storing private bitcoin keys may be released as soon as 2017 as an alternative to hardware wallets. It is supposed to provide maximum security for your funds – inside your own body.

A biohacker Amal Graafstra, the founder of a garage company called Dangerous Things, has created new prototype of a near-field communication chip UKI. One of the applications developed for the device will be the UKI bitcoin wallet. Implanted subcutaneously, the chip allows its owner to always keep their cryptographic keys closer than skin – in this case, literally. The keys can be read with NFC-devices.

According to Motherboard, the injection kit is cheap, it costs about $100: the same price as the popular hardware bitcoin wallet Trezor.

“I think probably the killer app for something like UKI is going to be payments and transit,” Mr Graafstra said, adding that it gives “the ability to get rid of your keys and get rid of your wallet.”

In 2014, a Dutchman Martijn Wismeijer aka Mr Bitcoin used the previous version of the Dangerous Things chip to implant bitcoin wallet under the skin on his hands for the period of ten days. More recently, in November 2015, Patric Lanhed of the Swedish agency DigitasLBi dеmоnstrаted that such implants can be used for bitcoin payments with the help of NFC scanner. Graafstra also implanted himself with the chips and uses them to open doors in his house.

Lyudmila Brus