The most common lock and key ergonomics that everyone is familiar with is the following:
1. You have a lock, you have a corresponding physical key. You can have more identical physical keys. All of them will unlock the lock. If you lose the physical key, you can call the locksmith to change the lock. Physical key is anonymous. Only you know which key unlocks which lock. If a random person finds your physical key on the street, they shouldn't be able to find their way to your lock to try and unlock it.
2. That's all well and good. Now, comes a magic key. That's your personal magic key. Any lock you are permitted to unlock, your magic key can unlock it. Any key you are not permitted to unlock, your magic key cannot unlock. Now, you can more than one magic key – where only some of the locks you are allowed to unlock can be unlocked by one magic key vs another.
And if you happen to lose your magic key, you can call your locksmith to cancel your magic key – actually, that's a keysmith than a locksmith!
3. Your magic key is still anonymous. Only you know which magic key can open which locks. A random person who finds your magic key shouldn't be able to find their way to all the locks it can unlock.
4. When you see a lock, you are prompted to insert a key. The prompt doesn't say which key. You try one of the magic keys have that you think should unlock it. If it happens to the wrong key, not a big deal. You just try another magic key you have, and if that's the correct key it will unlock it.
5. When you buy a new lock (sign-up), you decide which magic key you have that should be the one to unlock it. This pairing of the key to the lock is done simply by asking pair a key to the lock. You are not being told to use a specific vendor of magic keys. You are not being peddled only magic key vendor over another!
6. If you want to change the magic key paired to a lock, you can do so at anytime on your own as long as you are in possession of the current magic key.
7. And of course, you can have multiple magic keys paired to the lock, so that you can unlock with any of the keys.
8. When you use a key to unlock a lock, the lock can tell which paired key was used – you can give nicknames to the paired keys that the lock remembers. The lock will tell you which nicknamed keys were used to unlock it previously and when.
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Here's where I think passkeys went awry. They became yet another platform war. The OSes and browsers are supposed to be neutral and provide an unobtrusive prompt for user to pair a key or use a key, that's it. And the user should invoke a keyring against that prompt. If the keyring provider has features – like portability or non-portability of keys etc that's unique to each key ring provider and as long as the user is comfortable with it, everyone should be good with it. The prompt needs to be unassuming. Today it is very assuming and that's the problem!
1. You have a lock, you have a corresponding physical key. You can have more identical physical keys. All of them will unlock the lock. If you lose the physical key, you can call the locksmith to change the lock. Physical key is anonymous. Only you know which key unlocks which lock. If a random person finds your physical key on the street, they shouldn't be able to find their way to your lock to try and unlock it.
2. That's all well and good. Now, comes a magic key. That's your personal magic key. Any lock you are permitted to unlock, your magic key can unlock it. Any key you are not permitted to unlock, your magic key cannot unlock. Now, you can more than one magic key – where only some of the locks you are allowed to unlock can be unlocked by one magic key vs another. And if you happen to lose your magic key, you can call your locksmith to cancel your magic key – actually, that's a keysmith than a locksmith!
3. Your magic key is still anonymous. Only you know which magic key can open which locks. A random person who finds your magic key shouldn't be able to find their way to all the locks it can unlock.
4. When you see a lock, you are prompted to insert a key. The prompt doesn't say which key. You try one of the magic keys have that you think should unlock it. If it happens to the wrong key, not a big deal. You just try another magic key you have, and if that's the correct key it will unlock it.
5. When you buy a new lock (sign-up), you decide which magic key you have that should be the one to unlock it. This pairing of the key to the lock is done simply by asking pair a key to the lock. You are not being told to use a specific vendor of magic keys. You are not being peddled only magic key vendor over another!
6. If you want to change the magic key paired to a lock, you can do so at anytime on your own as long as you are in possession of the current magic key.
7. And of course, you can have multiple magic keys paired to the lock, so that you can unlock with any of the keys.
8. When you use a key to unlock a lock, the lock can tell which paired key was used – you can give nicknames to the paired keys that the lock remembers. The lock will tell you which nicknamed keys were used to unlock it previously and when.
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Here's where I think passkeys went awry. They became yet another platform war. The OSes and browsers are supposed to be neutral and provide an unobtrusive prompt for user to pair a key or use a key, that's it. And the user should invoke a keyring against that prompt. If the keyring provider has features – like portability or non-portability of keys etc that's unique to each key ring provider and as long as the user is comfortable with it, everyone should be good with it. The prompt needs to be unassuming. Today it is very assuming and that's the problem!