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Three Square Begins Testing RFID Chip Implants Enabling Cashless Payments And Access At Firms Micromarkets

RIVER FAL LS,WA -- Three Square Market is offering its employees the opportunity to volunteer for surgical implantation of an RFID chip. Once implanted, the chips will enable their hosts to make purchases from the micromarket in the company's breakroom, and will speed and simplify access control when opening doors, logging into computers, using the copy machine and the like. The company, a major manufacturer of micromarkets, expects more than 50 staff members to be voluntarily chipped. The implantation i...

July 23, 2017 by Nick Montano, Nick Montano

RIVER FALLS,WA -- Three Square Market is offering its employees the opportunity to volunteer for surgical implantation of an RFID chip. Once implanted, the chips will enable their hosts to make purchases from the micromarket in the company's breakroom, and will speed and simplify access control when opening doors, logging into computers, using the copy machine and the like.

The company, a major manufacturer of micromarkets, expects more than 50 staff members to be voluntarily chipped. The implantation involves a syringe and takes only seconds. It will be available during a "chip party" at 32M headquarters on Aug. 1. The company is partnering with the developer of the technology, Sweden's BioHax International. BioHax chief executive Jowan Osterland will perform the injections. His company sees the concept as part of an evolution toward what he calls the "Internet of Us."

The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, is passive, with no power supply. Injected into the host's hand below the thumb, it works in conjunction with a near-field communications transceiver in the micromarket, lock or control. When the host's hand is moved to within a few inches of the transceiver, the chip's passive circuit encodes the host's identity on a signal that then is reflected back to the transceiver to verify identity. NFC technology is widely used in contactless credit cards and mobile payment interfaces.

"We foresee the use of RFID technology to drive everything from making purchases in our office micromarkets, opening doors, use of copy machines, logging into our office computers, unlocking phones, sharing business cards, storing medical/health information, and used as payment at other RFID terminals," said 32M chief executive Todd Westby. "Eventually, this technology will become standardized, allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit farecard, all purchasing opportunities, etc."

The use of embedded microchips is the next step in the evolution of payment systems. Three Square reportedly encountered "chipped" employees while working with its micromarket operators in Europe. 

Three Square chief operating officer Patrick McMullan observed that the international marketplace for human microchip implants is wide open and the future trajectory of total market share is going to be driven by those companies to enter the arena first. Europe more advanced in mobile and chip technology usage than the U.S., but he predicted that 32M will help drive the technology, including the use of implants, in the U.S. He said 32M envisions the technology growing its self-checkout businesses.

"We see this as another payment and identification option that not only can be used in our markets, but also at other self-checkout and self-service applications that we are now deploying at convenience stores and fitness centers," McMullan said.

Three Square has more than 2,000 kiosks operating in nearly 20 nations. It also runs more than 6,000 kiosks in Turnkey Corrections, its own corrections-segment service.