My Astari Custom Payment Conversion Experience

Payment implant :atm:

So as I’ve been seeing quite a few threads regarding these new types of tokenized payment wearables. After almost a year of buying various ones and getting burnt by incompatibility for various reasons, I finally found Astari.
The Astari tokenized payment has:

  • No expiry date
  • Uses PIN for CSA rather than physical chip
  • Easy to disassemble
  • Decent app for changing CC token
  • Also has NFC functionality for business card when scanned with phone (Read-only though)
  • Great performance, as shown in video

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures/video of me disassembling. But I ordered the Astari keychain, and disassembled by simply opening the stitching all around.
The chip itself is quite sturdy, but should still be handled with care, as not to damage antenna and components.

Here is a picture of the chip before sending it in for conversion.

In order to test out various implant locations, I attached the chip to the inside of a bandaid, to simulate installation. My installation professional had previously installed Walletmor in L5, and said his boss said he could feel it “grinding” at the wrist. So I tried out L1, but ended up deciding on my preferred position, which is L5, knifes edge.

After sending in the chip for conversion, the waiting begun.
My total wait was almost exactly a month. The process was fine, but I was a little anxious sending it across the ocean and waiting for confirmation it was received, since it goes to a middleman before final confirmation. So even if your courier sets the package as delivered, be patient.

My only wish was that there were a little more communication about when the conversion would take place, but I understand this would add extra work to the DT team, further delaying all other orders.


Chip well received, looks amazing. Note the slightly increased size due to the biopolymer. It also becomes quite stiff.
Dummy x-series placed next to it for size.

Functionality tested OK after conversion. I had even wrapped it in an extra bag, for protection.
Range and performance was amazing, even able to scan through my fingers.

I scheduled an appointment with my installation professional on Friday the 19th. The installation took about 45 minutes total, and was done by scalpel.

Immediately after installation, I was able to use it. I paid both for the operation and my groceries the same day. Functionality unimpeded even through gauze and swelling.

Some mild bruising on the top of my hand here 1½ week after installation, but all in all, recovery is proceeding well.

In the end, I can highly recommend the service, and using the Astari chip.
Of course, make sure your bank is supported, but for EU residents, Curve is an option and works without a hitch. Other banks may have the issue with requiring physical SCA when the card has been used a few times, which defeats the point of the implant.

10/10 would highly recommend

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Thanks for sharing your experience! I’m sorry for the delays and lack of communication and 100% understand the frustration. I can tell you we have been striving to do better with conversion turn around overall. I feel like our efforts are paying off–not that it makes your experience any better. Astari is, unfortunately, particularly challenging and as such will always be more time consuming.

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Hey! No worries at all on this. I don’t know if it was you or someone else I e-mailed with, but some of the confusion came from the conversion product page saying turnaround time was expected to be a week (This was updated later). So you can understand my disappointment when I was informed that a month would be a quick turnaround.(I’m not great with waiting around, once I have an idea in my head :stuck_out_tongue:)

I also received an e-mail when the conversion was completed, and from there it was very quick.

All-in-all, I’m still very happy with the service from DT and I’m currently in my trailing of a Magic Gen4 card to get the UG4 next.

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Could you post a photo of your hand :palm_down_hand:after it has healed so I can see how it works since I’m considering the same thing? :eyes:


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wow! clean work, :dark_sunglasses:it looks like nothing happened, that’s how I would like my work when the time comes to do it. I wish you the best, thanks for answering

FYI…

We are awaiting a response from Astari.

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A good reminder for people to segment their online life so companies can’t trace you through your username

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I just don’t get it, how does something like this harm them in any way? Why does wanting a more convenient payment option warrant such harassment?

Jerks

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“Our Terms and Conditions are the law”

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I think the issue might be that the terms and conditions - particularly the idea of not altering the product in any way - is something that the networks (Mastercard, Visa, etc.) impose on manufacturers like Astari. Considering how bent out of shape networks are about each and every product a manufacturer produces must have full EMV certification at all levels, I can see this being the underlying reason.

See, if Astari is perceived as not making a “good faith effort” to enforce their terms and conditions, Mastercard could simply deactivate the entire company on their network… so it’s a kneejerk fear based reaction on their part… but it’s also probably very necessary from their perspective. It’s also likely why they immediately informed Mastercard - to make an effort… to show they are acting in good faith to uphold their terms and conditions and set the right tone with Mastercard. Astari is trying to establish with Mastercard that they are not acting in any way to encourage or even implicitly indicate (through apathy) they don’t actually care if their customers violate T&Cs. Internally they very likely do not actually care someone did this with one of their wearables… they do absolutely care that Mastercard may find some reason to basically nuke their entire business overnight.

I invite Astari to join and comment here … if only for further clarity :slight_smile:

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The payment network folks are mostly who I had in mind there anyways, just frustrating how unwilling they are to cooperate with/accept payment implants when they’re the exact same as other functional products.

And yes, I realize I’m complaining to the person who probably knows more about that than anyone else :classic_tongue:

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Also it should be stated, the Streisand Effect is strong with these kinds of actions… I would have never necrobumped this thread if they hadn’t bothered… so inevitably their action will result forum users getting notifications about activity on this thread, search engines picking up renewed activity, and ultimately more people seeing the modification - presumably exactly what they did not want to happen.

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: The anti​:no_entry_sign:-derailment​:railway_car: & thread​:thread: hijacking​:gun: thread​:thread: :interrobang:

Questions about the Astari legal situation should go here since this is the thread / post they directly referenced.

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SECTION 17 - TAMPERING WITH PRODUCTS
We strongly recommend that you do not tamper with your wearables in a manner that is inconsistent with the reasonable and normal use of the wearables. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF SUCH ALTERATIONS AND MANIPULATION and your account may be restricted or closed if the wearables and/or cards associated with your account have been tampered with. No refunds or support will be given to customers who have engaged in such activities.

“Strongly reccomend” doesn’t sound very violate-y or illegal-y to me

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Yeah… more proof to me that this is an action taken under threat of Mastercard wrath.

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2024-12-20-snWNFKY0TI
Dangerous things? On this forum? Unthinkable

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They’re going to be pretty upset when they see internet archive has captured this page

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