Is the future biometric for wearables?

As a runner, I want to make contactless payments using my smartwatch so that I can purchase a drink after my run without carrying a wallet or my smartphone.

I can do this today as various wearable vendors offer smartwatches with contactless payment capabilities. However to perform user authentication, the user has to unlock their smartwatch through a passcode or an unlock pattern. However passcodes/lock patterns can be guessed (by others) and are inconvenient to enter on a smartwatch.

A more convenient and secure way for wearables to perform user authentication is to use fingerprint sensors to enroll and verify the user fingerprints. Every time a user wants to complete a contactless payment, she will touch the fingerprint sensor. On a successful match, the digital wallet app on the smartwatch will authorize the payment.

Future of authentication is biometric for Wearables

An article speculates that Apple Watch 7 will have a fingerprint sensor for user identification and authorizing payments. Meanwhile, a startup Finwallet demonstrated a wearable Keyble with a fingerprint sensor at CES 2021. These events indicate that wearables will employ biometric authentication in the future. It will be interesting to see biometric authentication features from wearable vendors in the coming years.