Chase is keen to point out the impossibility of credit-card details somehow leaking out "It's a closed, pre-pay system we use here. Bills for drinks are simply debited off their Baja accounts."He does admit that the chips seem to make his guests spend more money. "People like to play with it; they want to see the system working."The technology is still very much a novelty. Chase, who says the Baja in Barcelona was the first disco in the world to use VeriChip, has now introduced it in its sister club in Rotterdam. He also knows of clubs in London and Miami which are considering buying it.Applied Digital has been manufacturing electronic chips for years, mainly as a tagging device for the movement of goods, salmon stocks and domestic animals. Then, last autumn, the US Food and Drug Administration cleared the use of the VeriChip for implanting medical details in patients, a potential life-saver at accident scenes. Those that have, Chase explains, can run a tab on a central computer, which they can check up on with a wave of the arm.
The scanning software, VeriPay, is operated by Windows.Currently, there are more than 90 chipped VIP members of the Baja; staff won't be drawn on whether these include Ronaldinho (not all VIPs have opted for the device). The chip is tiny, about the size of a pen point, and can be painlessly injected into the arm by any qualified nurse (Chase insists that at the Baja they only do this "early in the evening"). "We wanted to offer them a membership card that was modern and cool, and it was then, last year, that I discovered the chip idea on some geek website."VeriChip, as the technology is called, is manufactured by Applied Digital Solutions, a Florida-based company, and so far is the only chip on the market that can be embedded in humans. He's also a household name in Spain, having just starred in the country's Big Brother, which may explain why he's just been mobbed by a crowd of Spanish girls wanting his photo."Actually, we started the VIP bar precisely to stop our famous guests getting mobbed," he explains, with a touch of fellow feeling.
He runs the scanner device over himself, and the computer instantly reads his 16-digit ID code. A photo pops up on the screen with his name, and the security man jokily waves the boss through.Chase is a dynamic, bouncy American, always with an eye on the next new thing. "It's somewhere about here..." he murmurs, feeling his upper arm. On a warm summer night in Barcelona, the dance floor of the Baja Beach Club is a writhing mass of locals and tourists. The normal punters here still have to go through the tiresome rituals of queuing for entry, waiting at the bar, fumbling for change, and fretting about the safety of their wallets. But for the lucky members of the Baja's VIP lounge, a magic chip implanted in their arm does it all for them The cybernetic disco has arrived It's midnight, and time for the VIP lounge to open. Footballers Ronaldinho and Eto'o are sometimes here, though apparently not tonight At the entrance, there's no lists of names, just a computer.