Ken Shirriff (@kenshirriff@oldbytes.space)
oldbytes.space
Attached: 1 image To use the Montreal subway, you tap a paper ticket against the turnstile and it opens. But how does it work? And how can the ticket be so cheap that it's disposable? I opened up the tiny NFC chip inside to find out more... 1/15

You can buy an 8-inch silicon wafer with these chips for $9000. That sounds expensive, but a wafer holds an amazing 100,587 tiny chips. That yields a price of nine cents per chip, making them cheap enough to use in disposable tickets.