Thanks to our rubbish password choices and forgetful minds, PayPal is proposing a brand new way to protect ourselves on the internet. And it may involve swallowing our passwords or injecting silicon computer chips inside our bodies.

In recent presentations at tech conferences across the US and Europe, PayPal Global Head of Developer Advocacy Jonathan Leblanc has claimed that traditional usernames and passwords are dead – obvious password choices make our online identities too easily hackable. To replace this system, he suggests more accurate identification methods which require biometrics such as vein recognition, computer chip tattoos and ingestible authentication devices.

At the moment, PayPal’s biometric ID only includes fingerprint and eye scans. According to Leblanc, the company has been working with other businesses which are developing vein recognition and heartbeat recognition systems.

If Paypal adopted these technologies, we might one day have to implant silicon chips under our skin. ECG sensors would monitor our heart’s unique electrical activity and send this information via a wireless antenna to our wearable computer tattoo.

This takes the wearable tech trend to the next level by requiring users to actually have computer chips inside them, rather than just wearing or carrying around smart tech.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Leblanc explained: “I can’t speculate as to what PayPal will do in the future, but we’re looking at new techniques – we do have fingerprint scanning that is being worked on right now – so we’re definitely looking at the identity field.”

PayPal said that the company was not going to introduce swallowable passwords anytime soon, but confirmed that it is introducing fingerprint payments. "We have no plans to develop injectable or edible verification systems," a PayPal spokeswoman told us. "It's clear that passwords as we know them will evolve and we aim to be at the forefront of those developments. We were a founding member of the FIDO alliance, and the first to implement fingerprint payments with Samsung."

But do we really want password tattoos or computer implants? At the year’s SXSW, wearable tech’s aesthetic appeal was a big topic of discussion, as SXSW speaker and Third Wave Fashion founder Liza Kindred suggested wearable tech’s look sucked. “Very few of us want to look like robots. The market for people who want to look like androids or cyborgs exists, but it's very limited," she commented.

If this takes off PayPal could potentially get rid of its username and password methods of identification, so be prepared to be injected and become a walking piece of wearable tech.

Check out our interview with Ben Slater, a guy who's already fast-forwarded to the future and surgically implanted microchips into his hands. 

(h/t WIRED)