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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

Comments  

# Stuart Trusty 2016-08-27 21:28
This is signing your own death warrant. If you can be NFC scan-identified as having an implant of a Bitcoin wallet, you can also be hauled off in the trunk of someone's car and be tortured until you give up the password. Until this great idea, at least there are some barriers of time, space, and recourse to prevent being separated from all your money permanently.
# Martijn Wismeijer 2016-09-03 23:08
@Stuart, I disagree with you on the death warrant comment as it is easy to break the key in pieces using Shamir's Shared Secret or a standard multisig addresses and split the keys over several implants.

You can also protect your key with BIP38 encryption so that you will need a password for accessing your crypto dough. We modified the Mycelium wallet to allow for an NFC Bitcoin URI with a BIP38 encrypted key for this specific purpose. The security is pretty tough and no longer easy to break as is the case with the 40-bit security typically offered by NFC chips themselves.

@Lyudmila Not sure what your source was or where you got the "only for 10 days" from but guess you have read it somewhere and copy pasted that from that article. Problem is that that article was most likely copy/pasted too so chances of errors are very real. Because of this, it is always a good idea to double check your facts before pressing the publish button. I have been using my implants for cryptocurrency payments since november 2014 and because the Mycelium Bitcoin wallet is now compatible, there is really no need to fear security problems. Scanning range from the chips are very small because of the tiny antenna and body tissue surrounding it, making remote scanning from a distance practically impossible.

The title of this article is technically wrong too. Instead it should have been "Sub-dermal chip for cryptographic keys available everywhere since 2014"
# Stuart Trusty 2016-09-07 15:47
Let's all think really hard about what you are saying. OK, so you can split your ID into a couple of different implants. Let's say you owe US$200,000 to some individual or regime that wishes to collect if from you- they don't care how, they just want their money. So, you have publicly said you have such an implant, so does this mean that Guido just needs to scan 3 different body parts, or that he also kidnaps your wife and child when he comes for you to not only torture you out of your Bitcoin password (as safe as your pain threshold, not a technical issue), but grabs your kidneys and liver in the process to liquidate your debt? Normally a collector would have to do things like freeze your bank account and use legal due process, but not with your system- your system permits liquidation of someone's entire monetary holdings through use of torture. OK, so nobody can long-range scan for your implant, but how serious are you about protecting your database so it doesn't get sold to bounty hunters extorting your password and organ harvesting, as well as your wife and child? What are we all missing here, or was this just a very bad idea you keep continuing to have?
# Martijn Wismeijer 2016-09-07 15:55
Nah. I only demonstrated that it is possible. In the original article I stated that I am not doing that for large sums of money but anyone else can do that without anybody knowing.. Seriously... Mine was just to demo that it is possible, if you are a bit more discrete about it there is no problem.
BTW: Do you own an iPhone? Have you heard people their fingers being chopped of because the fingerprint protects their Bitcoin wallet? Neither have I. This is a general scare associated with new technologies.
In the 80's we feared that fingerprint readers would cause chopped fingers for robberies. It is 2016 now, nothing like that happened after all phones started using fingerprint unlock by default.
In the 90's retina scanners where first deployed and people thought that their eyeball might be stolen. Great stuff for sci-fi writers but none of that happened.
Not sure about organ harvesting, bounty hunters and the likes, we do not have them here in our neighborhood and think that if you have to worry about kidnappers you have different problems to think about, like moving home to a better area.