>I think this breaks the "don't compromise usability" rule set at the top. What? It's more, not less usable. You plug in a key and now all you need is a 4-8 di

>I think this breaks the "don't compromise usability" rule set at the top. What? It's more, not less usable. You plug in a key and now all you need is a 4-8 digit PIN for most operations while still being secure, not a 20+char random password, and it's not tied to a specific system either. HSMs are one of the rare cases in security where they are both more secure and better UX. >chances are the Mac they're buying has some form of Touch ID for authentication I addressed this. That only applies to new and new-ish notebooks unless you also get a special Apple-only keyboard. Even for notebooks, it only applies if you have the notebook close, open and/or are happy to reach for it. If someone is doing the common pattern of their notebook docked at their desk to another screen and peripherals at least some of the time, now Touch ID is most decidedly not right there (again, barring sticking only to Apple keyboards). And not everyone is 100% exclusively in the Apple ecosystem, even if they have lots of Apple stuff. If website credentials are tied to keys, one can just unplug and plug it into a Linux/BSD/Windows system and still login fine. I don't disparage making use of biometrics on Macs or iDevices a single bit, and indeed I think it's weird and silly that Apple hasn't done Face ID for the Mac. But that doesn't mean USB keys or smart cards aren't super handy for a lot of Mac usage same as they are on any other system. It's a fairly polished built-in supported feature of macOS, no reason not to consider taking advantage of it.