We have needed passwords to do things online for decades. But new forms of authentication will finally let us get rid of them. There are many methods to authenticate a user and we're slowly using them witout realizing.
Current forms of user authentication are:
- Use a link sent via email or push notification;
- Use of biometric scan (face or thumb);
- Use a mainstream service or network (Google, Facebook);
- SMS code authentication
- Certificate based outhentication (via browser)
- Token-based authentication
As all technologies and trends, we don't believe passwords will go away. However, for day-to-day tasks it is much more quick to rely on quicker tehods of authentication.