This Guy’s Opal Card Implant Might Be Deactivated By Transport Authorities

Bio hacker Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow — yup, that’s his actual name – made headlines this week when he proudly presented his Opal card which is implanted under the skin on his hand.

It’s a painful way to save yourself a few seconds getting your wallet out – but each to their own, right?

Well, no.

Transport authorities have now officially threatened Mr Meow Meow (sorry, I can’t) that they’ll deactivate his card and render it useless. A far bigger inconvenience than I’m sure he was initially hoping.

They argue that in creating the implant, he ‘defaced’ the Opal by cutting it up into a 10mm x 6mm NFC chip that now sits beneath his skin. Under the official terms of use, transit officers may be forced into a position where they need to confiscate cards, but in his case things might get a little bit messy. That being said, I’ve met some of them and I wouldn’t put it past them having a crack.

In a statement, NSW Transport said:

“Transport for NSW does not support the tampering or damaging of Opal Cards, which would be a breach of the terms of use”

“Customers that are caught tampering with their Opal card may have their card cancelled”

“Changing the physical attributes of the card may impact the reliability of the Opal card”

There’s also some other issues like the card not being sensitive enough to provide proper consistency, sometimes requiring a few swipes. They’ve warned the bio-hacker that if they see him using it, his implant will be deactivated on the spot. How exactly, we’re not 100% sure.

You gotta give the guy full marks for trying.

Check out a video interview with the guy testing the card in action:

Header image via ABC news