Bengaluru, March 4 -- Most often we are guilty of having forgotten at least one of our passwords or PINs when it comes to transaction authentication. Now, that trouble could well be over with PhonePe's recent rollout of biometric authentication for UPI payments.

For over a decade, the four-digit or six-digit PIN has been the gatekeeper of our digital wallets. It was a revolutionary step away from physical signatures and cash, but as our digital lives accelerate, even the PIN has begun to show its age. Between "shoulder-surfing" in crowded markets and the simple frustration of forgetting a code, the traditional PIN has become a point of friction.

With PhonePe's biometric authentication for UPI payments, the industry has reached a tipping...