> What is the point of using a public key crypto for something entirely private? As opposed to symmetric encryption? The advantage is that you don't need to pr

> What is the point of using a public key crypto for something entirely private? As opposed to symmetric encryption? The advantage is that you don't need to provide the encryption password to write new passwords or replace old ones, since it uses the public key for that. It's a matter of convenience rather than security, in my opinion. Using PGP also allows you to use related technologies, like agents and OpenPGP smartcards like Yubikey. I use my Yubikey to read my pass passwords. With the right setup using agent forwarding, I could also decrypt my passwords on a remote computer with the Yubikey through an ssh connection. Besides, gpg is so versatile that you might be using it for loads of other stuff already and you may as well use it for passwords too. For example, you can use it for your ssh keys, to authenticate to PAM for `sudo` and `login` (local and remote (probably) using agent forwarding through an ssh connection). > rather than gpg, which is in itself complex gpg is complex, but you don't need to use all its features. You can just stick to a simple subset.