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eddygtoday at 6:31 PM4 repliesview on HN

Passkeys are fantastic for the vast majority of the population. They solve oodles of problems. No more teaching ${FAMILY_MEMBER} about good passwords, password re-use, trying to explain how to use a password manager, etc. Instead: create passkey, done. Then it's seamless login whether they're on their computer, phone or tablet.

As a tech-savvy user fully aware of the underlying machinations involved with passkeys, I greatly prefer their simple, fast login experience over: username submit password submit TOTP submit, and especially over the much-worse "we've emailed you a code" login slog.


Replies

201984today at 6:33 PM

It's great until they break their phone, or spill coffee on it, or just lose it, and now they are locked out of EVERYTHING with no good way to get back in.

Passwords on a piece of paper for better or worse do not have that problem.

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elitoday at 6:39 PM

You omitted my favorite feature: virtually immune to phishing. You can't accidentally submit a passkey to a lookalike domain.

For phishing protection, passkey as a single factor is better than memorized password + TOTP/SMS two factor.

noAnswertoday at 6:56 PM

How does the secret jump from the PC to their phone? How do they know each other? ...does the answer involve going all-in on Apple forever?

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lazidetoday at 6:37 PM

Huh? I’ve seen zero implementations that work seamlessly across computer, phone, tablet - unless they are all single platform, which I have yet to see anyone actually pull off.

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