According to NPR, people in Sweden are voluntarily inserting microchips into their fingers and using them for identification and payment.

The chips are designed to speed up users’ daily routines and make their lives more convenient — accessing their homes, offices and gyms is as easy as swiping their hands against digital readers.

They also can be used to store emergency contact details, social media profiles or e-tickets for events and rail journeys within Sweden…

Around the size of a grain of rice, the chips typically are inserted into the skin just above each user’s thumb, using a syringe similar to that used for giving vaccinations. The procedure costs about $180.

There are also some interesting statistics on the declining use of cash in Sweden. The article says that in Stockholm only 1 in 4 people uses cash once a week (or more) and only 15 percent of retail transactions involve cash (and this was already down to less than half as of 2010).