From The Herald Sun

A SCOTTISH nightclub is to become the first in Britain to offer customers cash-free drinking by having a microchip implanted in their arm.

The tiny "digital wallet" would allow entry to the club and allow revellers to buy drinks on account.

The VeriChip is inserted by a medical expert and then scanned for its unique ID number as the bearer enters the bar.

Owner of Glasgow's Bar Soba, Brad Stevens, said: "By the time you walk through the door, your favourite drink is waiting for you."

I cannot see how anyone would think this is a good idea. I love my beer as much as the next sot, but I think my credit card or those rare green bills that escape the grasp of my wife are as far as I need to go when it comes to paying for the booze.

While I fully support individuals making the choice to do this or not, I cannot fathom why (a) a bar of all places needs something like this and (b) how the chipped individuals don't think that there's so much room for fraud: "I didn't want the $200 bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue" "Well, mate, it's your favorite drink and just walking in the door meant you wanted it."

Now, if your credit card was combined with the chip so that the charges couldn't be added to the account without the chip's presence, then that's a workable idea (one that could just as easily be done with some other biometric like a finger or iris print). But just being able to charge someone something just because of their presence is a scary idea that I sure as hell wouldn't buy into.

At least tonight I can have a homebrew without worrying about being scanned. Unless you count that stare my wife gives me when I drink.