Silicon Valley may shine as the home of technological innovation, but the location of one new tech evolution (albeit one with dystopian undertones) is River Falls, Wisconsin.

Employees of the River Falls-based Three Square Market are being offered the chance by their employer to have a biochip implanted in their skin —and plenty of the workers at the company’s corporate office plan to line up for the procedure.

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Three Square Market, a maker of “markets” or vending machines that businesses offer to employees in break rooms, will be offering the implant on a voluntary basis to its employees on Aug. 1 during what it calls a “chip party.”

The biochip, which will be provided and “installed” by the Sweden-based startup BioHax International, literally inserts Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology into the hands of users—the same type of technology one uses to make payments with their phone or enter a building with a key fob.

Tony Danna, the Vice President of International Development at Three Square Market, told International Business Times he first discovered the implant while visiting a coworking space in Sweden called Epicenter. Operating within the startup incubator, which was in conversation to use Three Square Market’s break room markets, was BioHax International.

"As we were talking, I got talking to them about the chip implants and how they work and I got more and more interested,” Danna said. “By the end of the day, I asked if I could get the chip implant myself."

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While BioHax International had successfully chipped more than 150 people—many working within Epicenter—the company’s owner Jowan Osterland wasn’t available to help insert the chip into Danna while he was visiting.

Instead, Danna will join the other employees of Three Square Market in getting the implant during the designated “chip party,” where a certified professional will be on sight to perform the installation—a relatively painless and brief process that places the FDA approved chip underneath the skin between the thumb and forefinger in a matter of seconds.

One wouldn't imagine people would be in a rush to be chipped by their employer; it's the kind of premise one expects to read about in sci-fi novels. But Danna said plenty of people around the office are excited about the possibility. He expects more than half of the company’s corporate office will partake in the implanting process.

“Their reaction right off the bat was, 'I'm excited,'” Danna said. While just a small group of Three Square Market employees got the ball rolling on the idea, he said others quickly got on board. “As we learned more about the microchips, it was another person and another person and here we are today with 50 employees who want to do it."

The chip would typically cost about $300, though Three Square Market will be covering the expenses for its workers—and the employees who choose to go through with the process will be able to keep the chip if they quit the company. “Once the chip is inserted it is their chip," Danna said.

Danna and the company see the chip as a potential to get out ahead of what they believe will be a coming trend in technology. “We believe we're innovators within technology and this was an avenue that we saw technology going and we wanted to have an opportunity to get involved in it,” Danna said.

It’s not hard to see where the idea comes from. NFC and RFID technology has become increasingly common—especially in mobile devices—and open up the possibility for much simpler interactions for people. Wearable technology, often thought of as a bridge between pocket-sized devices and more ingrained technology like the biochip hasn’t caught on as expected, so Three Square Market is skipping head straight to the next step.

For Three Square Market, the primary interest in the technology is for payments. The company’s break room markets use tap-to-pay options like Apple Pay that use NFC technology. With much of its workforce operating with NFC technology right in their hand, the company can experiment with touch-free payments through the chip.

It will also use the implant to give employees access to the company campus. Instead of requiring swiping a badge or holding up a key fob to gain access to a building, employees will be able to hold their hand up to the reader and be granted access.

Danna said the chip will also offer some open-ended abilities for those who opt to install it. A software component associated with the chip will allow users to add their own functionality, including unlocking their car. Danna said the chip will “make their life more convenient” for those who embrace it.

“To have the ability to not have to take your wallet with you, or your car keys...you're not going to lose those items or forget those items anymore," he said.

Of course the suggestion of being “chipped” by an organization, be it a government agency or faceless corporation or even an employer, carries a fair bit of skepticism, especially when it comes to a person’s privacy.

The chips from BioHax International being used by Three Square Market don’t offer any sort of tracking functionality. There is no GPS capability built into the implants, so an employer wouldn’t be able to keep tabs on a person’s direct location. According to Danna, the only time a person’s location is known is when they use the chip at a NFC or RFID reader.

Jowan Österlund, the founder of BioHax International, told IBT there are should be no privacy concerns "what so ever" associated with the chip. "The only difference from a key card or a key fob is that it's always on your person," he said. "In fact a key fob or a key card is way easier to read from afar since the antennas in them are much much bigger."

Since the chip can be used like an employee badge to grant access to a company’s campus and certain parts of the office, it’s possible that an organization using the chip could find ways to track employees as they come and go throughout the building, were they to want to do so.

Despite some of the concerns the chip may raise, Danna said the reception the chip has already gotten suggests it is the way of the future. “What's spun of it,” he said, “is we've had multiple businesses calling us in the last couple days and asking, 'How do we offer these chip implants to our employees?'"

If Danna is right and Three Square Market is just ahead of the curve on this upcoming trend, then a “chip party” may be coming soon to a company near you.

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