Taking the cold storage of a Bitcoin wallet a step further, the Dutch Bitcoin entrepreneur and founder of Mr. Bitcoin, Martijn Wismeijer implanted one NFC chip into each his hands.
The idea behind a Bitcoin wallet cold storage is keeping your Bitcoins offline, on an encrypted device securing it further against theft.
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This is usually done on an USB-stick or even a piece of paper, but not in Wismeijer‘s case.
He is using an “RFC Type 2 compliant NTAG216 RFI chipset” which is embedded in a tiny glass capsule, 2 by 12 millimeters, and carries 880 bytes of data, which is more than sufficient for a cold storage wallet, injected into the tissue in his hand between the thumb and the index finger.
“I use it for cold storage, but it’s not cold because it’s 37 degrees Celsius inside my body!” Wismeijer jokingly told ArsTechnica.
The NFC chip was bought with a pre-loaded syringe from DangerousThings.com and injected at a piercing studio after his own doctor understandably denied his request of inserting it into his body.
He commented that while it hurts more than your regular injection, there is no fear of infection as the hole from the injection has healed, but the chip is still noticeable in the tissue.
Even when he scans them he feels no difference, as the chip themselves does not generate any heat.
The reason for doing the deed was, according to Wismeijer, to serve his company, Mr Bitcoin, which is setting up their own Bitcoin ATMs in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Where his private key, with the ones from other colleagues, is used to unlock the company’s Bitcoin wallet when they need to transfer funds in and out of the cold storage.
To unlock they need to scan the chip with either a USB dongle or an NFC enabled phone, which is part of a larger secret key combined together using the Shamir’s Shared Secret.
Eventually Wismeijer envisions using his NFC chips for such things as locking and unlocking his NFC-enabled doors at home.
Something that for example Samsung is offering with their Ezon Digital Lock series,