So I like this. Here's how I see this working for the majority of people who don't know what SSH is: 1. Browsers support syncing between different devices usin

So I like this. Here's how I see this working for the majority of people who don't know what SSH is: 1. Browsers support syncing between different devices using some type of cloud provider (think Google's sing into Chrome, Safari's iCould integration, etc.). This obviously would need some type of client side encryption to be secure. Could be achieved with a plug in as a stop gap. 2. Browser support for this type of auth. Basically, you'd do <input type="identity" protocol="ssh" nonce="abc">, which would render as a drop down with a list of identities the browser has (which correspond to your private keys). You simply choose one, then submit the form. The server sees your public key (which it may remember after registration), the nonce, and the nonce signed with your private key, verifiable against your public key (I am hand-waving the actual authentication here. This implementation is susceptible to at least replay attacks unless the nonce is remembered by the server.) That's pretty much it. If you think about it, this is how LastPass works now, except instead of sending a one time signed nonce back to the server it sends a username and plain text password.