Bitcoiner implants Lightning chip in his hand

A Swiss IT worker, who appears online under the pseudonym F418, has implanted a microchip in his hand to make payments on the Lightning network.

A Swiss IT worker, who appears online under the pseudonym F418, has implanted a microchip in his hand to enable payments on the Lightning network. The self-experiment was successful. The underlying technology, however, is not brand new.

The Bitcoiner documented his experiment on YouTube. In an interview with the news outlet Cointelegraph, the Swiss man nicknamed F418 emphasizes: "The goal is simply to show that it’s possible and that you can do this kind of thing." The implant, roughly the size of a grain of rice, enables Bitcoin transactions without using a smartphone. When the test subject holds his hand against a payment terminal, a Lightning payment is activated.

How does the experiment work?

The experiment combines the Lightning network with NFC technology. Data transfer via NFC has become an integral part of our daily lives. For example, when we hold our credit cards, mobile phones, or watches up to the reader at the supermarket to pay, NFC (Near Field Communication) is used. This is a radio transmission that only works within a few centimeters. Such NFC chips are built into the smartphones we use to pay at the checkout.

But you can program them yourself as well. All you need to write to these "NFC-tags" is a smartphone with an NFC interface. NFC tags come in the form of credit cards, stickers, or transponders. The technology is also used in implants.

Connecting Lightning and NFC

After the aforementioned "F418" (a pseudonym dating back to the hash of the first Bitcoin transaction) had the implant with the NFC chip placed in his left hand, he linked it to the Lightning network.

All you need is to set up a Lightning wallet and top it up with a few sats. Then activate the subprotocol "LNURL-withdraw." Put simply, you can use this feature to issue a kind of direct debit authorization. It has an identification number (LNURLw), which is then written to the implant with an NFC‑capable smartphone. Once the chip is written, it can be used successfully for contactless Lightning payments. In the video, the payment is activated when the hand is held up to the reader.

Chip under the skin: not a new technology

What appears in the video as a small revolution is essentially nothing new. While the lovingly dubbed "LightningPaw" is likely the first of its kind, there have been self-experiments with NFC implants for several years that fulfill certain functions.

But since smartphone makers started embedding chips in devices by default, the technology has become a bit more popular again, because the transmitters can now be equipped with user-friendly apps.

Why do we need the Bitcoin Lightning Network?

Thanks to the Lightning network, transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain can be completed faster and Bitcoin becomes easier to use in daily life. You can read more about the Lightning Network here: here.