Biohacker Who Implanted Transit Chip in Hand Evades Fine – Futurism
Futurism.com reports: "In April 2017, Meow-Meow implanted a chip in his hand. The chip is from his Opal card, needed to ride public transportation in Sydney, and it essentially functions as a debit card — users add money to it, then whenever they use a bus, train, or other transportation service, they swipe their card to pay the fee. Thanks to his new implant, Meow-Meow no longer had to worry about losing his card. The biohacker could just place his hand near the Opal card reader and be on his way. All this was presumably working out OK for Meow-Meow until August 2017. That’s when the New South Wales transport authority, which issues the Opal cards, charged him with traveling without a ticket and failing to produce a ticket for transportation officials."

Comment: It doesn't surprise me that bureaucrats would be petty and not really grasp the concept. I think the real story here is the use of an implanted chip as a payment device and access device. As a proof of concept, that is very compelling. I think that early adopters like this guy have clearly demonstrated that an implanted chip is a practical means of combining identity verification, access control and mobile payments. It's possible. Whether the MOTB turns out to be a chip is still up for debate but for now, it's clear that this tech is here now.

Wisconsin company hopes to offer microchip implants to employees - UPI.com
UPI reports: "A Wisconsin company wants to offer surgically implanted microchips for employees to make it easier to buy snacks in the break room. [...] the implanted microchip makes it easier for people to pay for items at work. Instead of looking for coins, cash or a credit card, they would only need to place their hand in front of a scanner and electronically pay for their item. The microchip would have other uses, as well, like serving as an electronic key to open doors and identify the user to login at a computer. [...] Approximately 50 Three Square Market employees have volunteered to have the microchip inserted. Westby said it is not mandatory."

Comment: This seems like a clever way to entice people with the novelty of it while desensitizing them to the extreme privacy threat posed by implanted chip tech. I love that line where the CEO says it's not mandatory and he left off the "yet" part, lol. I would like to think that Americans still retain enough of the independent spirit to ever go along with this kind of monitoring and control.

Visa offers $500K for eateries to stop accepting cash - UPI.com
UPI reports: "Visa is challenging small restaurants, cafes and food trucks to stop accepting cash. The credit card company announced in a news release this week it is offering $500,000 to 50 eligible U.S.-based eateries to go 100 percent cashless. Restaurants signing up can get a $10,000 gift from Visa to help pay for technology upgrades, the San Francisco-based company said.

Comment: Visa is trying to get merchants in the U.S. to stop accepting cash, good luck with that. Meanwhile, in Britain, they are investing in trendy new banknotes with extra security features. I guess they didn't get the Visa offer.

Japan convenience stores to cut out workers, scan entire baskets - UPI.com
UPI reports: "By 2025 the country's major retailers, including Seven-Eleven Japan and other chain operators, will allow customers to use self-checkout computer kiosks to scan an entire basket of items without requiring individual scans, The Nikkei reported Tuesday, local time. [...] Chips, or radio frequency identification tags, that can compute all items simultaneously are to be used at Seven-Eleven, FamilyMart and Ministop stores, where they will be in active use in major cities by 2018, according to the report."

Comment: I think the cost of upgrading hardware would be prohibitive in a large country like the U.S., still, it's an interesting development, it shows how advanced RFID tech has become. 

Swedish company Epicenter implants microchips in employees - UPI.com
UPI reports: "About 150 employees the Swedish technology firm Epicenter agreed to have a microchip inserted in their hands, the company said. The RFID, or radio frequency identification chip, is about the size of a grain of rice and will allow workers at the company to open doors automatically and use electronic devices more efficiently. The chip is implanted in an employee's hand."

Comment: The Mark of the Beast prophecy found in Rev 13:16-18 is one of the most specific prophecies in the Bible and also one of the most enigmatic.  I'm not dogmatic on the subject and enjoy speculating on what it could be, alternating between a high-tech solution like an implanted chip to something as basic as a tattoo. Lately it seems like the high-tech answer is gaining ground, with remarkable innovations coming in the fields of mobile commerce, identity verification and biometrics. I don't claim to have the answer, but I am dedicated to watching the trends. In this latest news, some Swedish workers are having chips implanted into their hands. It sounds like this is a small-scale experiment with a technology that has wider commercial applications. It will be interesting to see how it goes. If your company offered this service, would you get chipped? 

People are using chip implants to open doors, control phones - CNET
CNET reports: "Minnesota software engineer Tim Shank uses a chip implanted in his finger to unlock the smart lock to his home. He also has an NFC chip with contact information stored in it, which lets him easily tap and send the info to an Android phone. [...] Shank is just one of a growing movement of biohackers who are implanting devices and chips in their bodies to perform different technological tasks."

Comment: It's been a while since we had a good MOTB update and this is an interesting if unsurprising story about how the biohacking community is taking to chip implants.  I mean, you would kind of expect that, right? At any rate, I no longer envision implanted chips to be the MOTB (our technology has moved so far beyond mere hardware) it's fun to check in once in a while and see if there have been any new developments. I should also note that this news site will attempt to start playing a video, so very annoying when you don't even have you earbuds in.  

The Telegraph - An office block in Sweden is micro-chipping its employees
The Telegraph reports: "Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, is ditching swipe cards and implanting chips in its employees. People working at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, simply have to hold their hands against the front door to gain entry. They can also wave their hand to operate the photocopier, the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones reports. In time, they will also be able to pay for coffee and sandwiches in the cafe with a touch of a hand. It's because some employees have a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip, about the size of a grain of rice, implanted. A handful of staff currently have the chip, but soon others among the 400 workers will be given the chance."

Comment: "The Borg? Sounds Swedish." But seriously, it's an interesting development that may or may not be MOTB related and although I can't see this becoming a trend, it's worth keeping an eye on. 

Wired.com - Student Suspended for Refusing to Wear RFID Tracker Loses Lawsuit:
Wired reports: "A Texas high school student who claimed her student identification was the 'Mark of the Beast' because it was implanted with a radio-frequency identification chip has lost her federal court bid Tuesday challenging her suspension for refusing to wear the card around her neck."

Wired News - Student Suspended for Refusing to Wear a School-Issued RFID Tracker
Wired News reports: "A Texas high school student is being suspended for refusing to wear a student ID card implanted with a radio-frequency identification chip. Northside Independent School District in San Antonio began issuing the RFID-chip-laden student-body cards when the semester began in the fall. The ID badge has a bar code associated with a student’s Social Security number, and the RFID chip monitors pupils’ movements on campus, from when they arrive until when they leave."

Texas School District Reportedly Threatening Students Who Refuse Tracking ID, Can't Vote For Homecoming
The Huffington Post reports: "The 'Student Locator Project,' which is slated to eventually reach 112 Texas schools and close to 100,000 students, is in trial stages in two Northside district schools. In an effort to reduce truancy, the district has issued new student IDs with an embedded radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that tracks the location of a student at all times [...] John Jay High School sophomore Andrea Hernandez refuses to use the new IDs, citing religious beliefs and instead sticking with her old badge from previous years, calling the tracking devices the 'mark of the beast.' She tells Salon that the new badges make her uncomfortable and are an invasion of her privacy."

VOA - The Death Of Cash
The Voice of America reports: "Think for a moment: in a world where every monetary transfer is logged and recorded and stored in the cloud, anonymity disappears. Every thing you buy or sell, from a car to a gallon of milk, will be marked and recorded. And critics worry that same system that logs and records your every financial move could also, potentially, have the power to block them all."  

Comment: This is an interesting article about money and asks if we are headed towards a cashless society.

Privacy and Security Fanatic: Facebook Wants to Issue Your IRL Offline ID & Internet Driver's License
Network World reports: "At the start of this year, it seemed as if Facebook wanted to utilize its identity infrastructure already on millions of websites in order to issue your Internet driver's license. Apparently that wasn't aiming quite high enough, since it now appears as if Facebook has future plans to issue your offline identity cards as well. Facebook filed for a trademark for 'goods and services' to use Facebook on 'cards, namely business cards and non-magnetically encoded identity cards' that could be read by NFC and RFID-enabled devices."

My Way News - Wal-Mart to roll out smart tags on men's basics
My Way News reports: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts."

Wired News - VeriChip’s Merger With Credit Monitoring Firm Worries Privacy Activists
Wired News reports: "With a human-implantable microchip maker now running a credit-scoring and identity-theft-protection website, privacy activists are worried again."

Comment: So, mark tech is meeting up with commerce tech, interesting development, as is the name change.

New Scientist - RFID tags get an intelligence upgrade
New Scientist reports: "Today's RFID tags can only broadcast fixed data back to a reader device, whether that's details of your passport or of an endangered bird. Researchers are now working to add brains to the tags in the form of microcomputers, opening the way for much smarter applications."

Comment: My usual caveat applies, this is not the mark, we are just watching the tech trends. I think the future of mark tech lies in nanotech-RFID tattoos, but this report notes some interesting advances along more conventional lines.

My Way News - Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
AP reports: "Embedding identity documents - passports, drivers licenses, and the like - with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country. But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent."

Comment: This is not the mark, but I do think we should keep up on the trends relating to the use of RFID chips. It's nice to see there is a growing debate about this now from a consumer privacy perspective.

Display Plus - VeriChip completes development of new 8 millimeter RFID implantable microchip
Display Plus reports: "VeriChip ( http://www.verichipcorp.com ), a provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced today it has completed the development of a new, smaller human-implantable RFID microchip measuring approximately 8 millimeters by 1 millimeter."

ninemsn - Humans 'will be implanted with microchips'
9NEWS reports: "All Australians could be implanted with microchips for tracking and identification within the next two or three generations, a prominent academic says."

My Way News - Indonesia scraps plans to tag HIV patients
AP reports: "An Indonesian province beleaguered by a spiraling HIV infection rate scrapped plans to implant microchips in those with full-blown AIDS on Tuesday, following strong opposition from government officials, health workers and rights activists."

Comment: I was watching this story to see how it developed, to see if a government in the world right now had the power to impose mandatory chip implants. Looks like the answer is no.

My Way News - British government's identity card plan begins
AP reports: "The British government began its identity card program for foreign nationals Tuesday - six years after heated debate over whether the costly plan is an effective tool against terrorism, identity theft and welfare fraud. [...] The cards will contain a computer chip with fingerprint information and other data, including date of birth and nationality, but will not contain religious or ethnic data."