Based on tests, the companies that own Ike Tech claim that this process has a 100 percent success rate in age verification, more or less calling the technology foolproof. “The FDA told us it was the holy grail technology they were looking for,” Wang says. “That’s word for word what they said when we met them.” The FDA did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
But Glantz is not at all convinced that this defense will work.
“The FDA is just showing their industry bias,” Glantz says. “If I were running the FDA, I would ban these devices from having Bluetooth capabilities at all. There are so many ways it can go south. Every technical fix has a workaround.”
The authentication features will only be associated with one person, so when the vape is on, that person can share a puff with anyone nearby without having to verify their age. At that point, Wang says it comes down to personal responsibility.
“You really have to rely on that person’s role,” Wang says. “If it’s someone 21 or older, of course, that’s fine, but if you really want to hand it over to someone younger, then you’re not responsible.”
Wang says the goal is to implement additional features in the authentication process, such as geo-fencing, which can force vaping to be turned off if it’s near a school or on an airplane. In the future, the plan is to license this biometric authentication technology to other e-cig companies. The technology could also grow to include fingerprint readers and expand to other types of products; Wang suggests guns, which have a long history of age verification features that don’t work at all.
Steam Ware
The timing of when Ike Tech might be out in the world—and how much it will cost when added to vape cartridges—is still unclear. Wang says there are already partnerships with two nicotine companies, but he won’t say when or if that will emerge. “In 2026, there will be a clear indication of when our solution will be approved and how many brands will license our technology.”
Wang’s ideal version of the vape, he says, would be a safe, clean way to smoke nicotine.
“In the industry, we have a saying: ‘Nicotine didn’t kill anyone,'” Wang says. “By and large, e-cigarettes are the safest way to consume nicotine.”
Glantz rejects that idea by citing practices such as “smoking topography,” in which nicotine companies track how smokers smoke the product differently, then control how much nicotine is inhaled at a time to increase the likelihood of addiction.
He is also concerned with the fundamental problem that electronic cigarettes and vapes are cleaner than traditional cigarettes at all. While the problem with cheap cigarettes and vapes may be other chemicals, nicotine itself is not a harmless substance.
“You can’t make a healthy electronic cigarette; it’s impossible,” Glantz says. “It’s true that nicotine is not carcinogenic, but it has all kinds of cardiovascular effects. Nicotine strengthens your nervous system.”
In order for nicotine to be absorbed as a vapor, it has to be broken down into high-quality particles. That’s what heating does, and those particles can have all kinds of negative health effects.
“There are all these other side effects that are really bad that nobody thinks about,” Glantz says. “Even if the age verification thing worked, it still doesn’t work.”
