Apex Wallet: Secure Bitcoin Storage Under Your Skin

Combining biohacking and cryptocurrency, biohackers are securing Bitcoin with subdermal wallet implants.

A new type of cryptocurrency wallet is being implanted under the skin by biohackers in an effort to keep their Bitcoin safe.

The Apex Wallet: Keeping Bitcoin Close at Hand

Putting your coins inside of yourself is a unique method to keep them close at all times, Decrypt explains, thanks to Dangerous Things and VivoKey Technologies of Seattle.

From the beginning, wallets have been an important—and often frustrating—part of the cryptocurrency landscape. Wallets come in all shapes and sizes, from credit card-sized devices and USB thumb drives to desktop computer programs and browser extensions.

The Apex wallet, which is about the size of a pill, stores data under your skin.

Subdermal Implants: Cryptocurrency Security Evolves

“These wallets are hardware wallets that are designed to send cryptocurrency,” Amal Graafstra, founder and CEO of VivoKey Technologies and Dangerous Things, told Decrypt in an interview. “Your phone app is your user interface, but it doesn’t have any private keys. The private key and the actual signing of the Bitcoin transaction, or the crypto transaction, is done in the chip.”

Biohacking, a burgeoning field that includes research into life extension and the use of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology to control computers, offers a potential solution. Many biohackers, including researchers and tech enthusiasts, are using subdermal computer chip implants. The Apex chip has multiple uses, Graafstra says: storing Bitcoin, opening doors and paying for coffee.

“We have a couple of different Bitcoin and crypto wallets right now that are supported,” Graafstra said. “We have a Satochip wallet, the Seedkeeper application, and the Status IM key card wallet. Those work with different blockchains.”

Dangerous Things and VivoKey, brands that launched in 2013 and 2017, respectively, focus on in-body radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technologies.

VivoKey describes the Satochip as a BIP32/39 wallet applet that allows users to securely store cryptocurrencies and conduct transactions on the blockchain. The Satochip also supports multiple fiat currencies.

“The Apex currently comes in a ‘Flex’ form factor, which is a much wider device, but very thin,” Graafstra says. “And so the procedure is similar; it’s a needle, you put the needle under the skin, you remove the needle, and then with sterile gloves, you pick up the Apex Flex, and you slide that into the incision.”

An Apex Flex implanted device currently costs $349.