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I recently watched a short video by REVE Systems that had me vigorously nodding my head in agreement.

The video was basically about the company’s auto-provisioning feature, which lets mobile providers use a customer’s phone number as their personal identification number (PIN) instead of a custom pin they have to create and remember. But really the video was about how we’re getting overwhelmed with a sea of PIN numbers and passwords.

At first, most of us did not have that many passwords. It might even have been fun to remember a secret code or two. But then our digital world expanded from occasional use to daily use, and the explosion of passwords and PIN numbers kept growing until it has reached the point of insanity.

For awhile I kept the insanity in check by writing them all down on paper, a tactic many people my parent’s age still do. But then I got mobile with the smartphone revolution, and keeping a written list no longer made sense. Written lists make sense for few of us now.

I then tackled this issue of complexity by standardizing my passwords and PINs. This helped—for awhile. But aside from being insecure, the game basically has changed again: More and more web sites and devices are requiring unique passwords, and the plethora of security breaches means that this universal password and PIN concept no longer works since I have to change numbers and passwords all the time. There can no longer be a standardized password or PIN.

That’s why solutions such as REVE’s auto-provisioning feature are so useful. Making the PIN tied to the cell phone number itself keeps the PIN secure, but it also makes it easy to remember! This is far better than having yet another PIN to remember.

This idea needs to be emulated by others more, because it is a fantastic feature that can have a definite benefit for customers and people like myself who struggle to keep up with all my passwords and PINs.

I shy away from services that require PINs, in fact. But if the service uses REVE’s auto-provisioning technology, I might give it another look.

Because PIN as phone number? Yeah, I can manage that.