Swedish company makes vaccine passport chips that can be placed under your skin

According to a viral Friday video from the South China Post, microchip technology is being presented as a way to hold an individual’s COVID-19 vaccine passport under the skin.

The technology was introduced in recent years by the Stockholm-based startup called Epicenter.

The group has showed the implant’s ability to store the vaccine passport that is then read by any device that utilizes the near-field communication (NFC) protocol, the video shows.

DSruptive CEO Hannes Sjöblad, the founder of the Swedish Association of Biohackers, was featured in the clip. He demonstrated how the rice-sized microchip by Epicenter is implanted under the skin. Optimal locations for the implant are either in the arm or between the thumb and forefinger.

This microchip technology is not unknown to United States citizens, though. In August of 2017, Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based technology company, was the first in the country to offer its employees similar free microchip implants. Those chips gave employees access to locked rooms and the ability to purchase food and drinks in the break room.

Three Square Market (32M) had been given the microchips by Biohax, which was headed by Jowan Österlund. Österlund, according to The Guardian, was a Swedish tattooist and body piercing specialist.

“Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.,” said 32M CEO Todd Westby at the time of Three Square Market implementing the microchip program.

He added then that many European countries already used microchips frequently, and the companies were trying to be ahead of the curve in bringing the technology to the United States.