This company wants you to implant their microchip inside your hand
Published on Jul 15, 2022 at 3:23 PM (UTC+4)
by Patrick Jackson
Last updated on Jul 18, 2022 at 1:44 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
A new company called Walletmor has released a microchip implant designed to replace your bank cards and wallet.
But perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn’t come without some controversy.
The microchip is designed to be implanted into your hand, and links with an app on your phone.
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This way, you can make contactless payments without whipping out your card, or having to carry around a bulky wallet.
The company claims it is the “world’s first entirely safe microchip implant”.
It also claims the chip is made from “sterile, solid, biocompatible and hypoallergenic materials”.
Once it’s been put in the recipient’s hand, all it will take to buy anything while out shopping is a flick of the wrist over the EFTPOS machine.
The company’s website claims the implants cost $299.
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But Walletmor is facing controversy for misleading customers.
Walletmor was repurposing microchips made by MuchBetter – a company associated with MasterCard.
And Walletmor reportedly didn’t alert them as to their planned use of the chips.
Citing ‘health and safety’ concerns, they had all the UK accounts that were linked to the microchips shut down.
This left some people with completely redundant chips under their skin.
The only option those with the chips are now left with is having them removed, or walking around with a totally useless bit of metal in their hand.
Walletmor claims it’s now brainstorming options to repurpose the existing microchips.
While it’s a wild concept, it might just be the future.
In fact, there’s a woman on TikTok who already has a chip implanted in her hand.
Burgundy Waller, AKA Chip Girl, was convinced by her ‘techy’ husband to get a chip in her hand in 2020.
When she posted a video of the chip working to open the front door of her house, it went viral on the video-sharing platform.
Now two years later, Chip Girl has amassed 2.8 million followers and 129 million likes.
She has also since put a chip inside her nail, which also works to open different parts of her house.
Patrick Jackson
A car zealot from a young age, Patrick has put his childhood spent obsessing over motoring magazines and TV shows to good use over the past six years as a journalist. Fuelled by premium octane coffee, he’s contributed to Finder, DriveTribe, WhichCar, Vehicle History and Drive Section.
