Is the future digital identities using heartbeats?

I use a variety of sites like Coinbase and IG for investing but find them very cumbersome. Trying to find how to sell and get rid of assets is not easy, unless you do it often. Here’s my vision of the near-term future. Money, investing, saving, trading will be just like Siri and Alex.

“Coinbase, sell 0.1 bitcoins”. Done.

“IG. Sell my shares in Lloyds”. Done.

But then you will all be asking about the security processes in these transactions, and the basics will not be biometrics. Sure, they are important, but the basics will be about multiple authentication that is simple.

Today, to complete each transaction, most financial systems have been built where they want my eyeball or fingerprint to confirm, followed by an OTP code via SMS or an authenticator code through an app and more. It’s clumsy and painful.

No more.

The app and instruction will instead be linked to my heartbeat and read through my finger via a ring. Did you know that every human’s heartbeat is unique? Just like their fingers, DNA and breathing.

Forget apps, mobiles and more. I just give the instruction, and the system registers it is me, and the trade is done.

This is the aim of where we are going: embedded, invisible finance and payments. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

But there are nuances. What does this mean for balance management and how do we create digital identities using heartbeats or, rather, who creates these digital identities?

The answer is Big Tech.

We already have Big Tech or some call them hyperscalers, although that’s not the same thing, but the most likely future is where we evolve from face ID and finger ID to heart ID and DNA ID.

I’ve always had this joke about DNA ID, which is that I spit on my bank, but we are not far away from that day. At least it would be easier than using the current ways we do things. Open an app – swipe for payment – open another app to authorise the payments – as it is from a third party – request to use authenticator to authorise the payment – open another app. It is just painful and ridiculous.

Sure, I like to be secure and protected, but where we have moved towards is stupid levels of barriers to do simple things, as I blogged about the other day.

This means it would be incredible to do onboarding and make payments in a heartbeat, but spread this wider. Why not travel around the world in a heartbeat? Boarding an aircraft? There are no security scans. You just walk up to a security window and breathe and you’re done. Go to hospital and your heart has already been checked. Vote for a government, just show that you’re alive.

Obviously, all of this needs permissions and, the most likely outcome, is the sovereign identity scheme which is where I only allow you hear my heartbeat, know I’m breathing, that I’m alive, on an as-needed basis with ZKP (Zero Knowledge Proof).

Oh, come the day.