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Thank you. It is disheartening that so many HN readers would rather imagine how passkeys work, and freak out at their own imaginings, than just learn the real t

Thank you. It is disheartening that so many HN readers would rather imagine how passkeys work, and freak out at their own imaginings, than just learn the real thing.

stavros 3y ago
Yep, that's what frustrates me as well, especially for a technology that will be a massive gift to both security and usability.
- barbazoo 3y ago
  Have a look around this thread. Lots of smart people having difficulties figuring out how this works. This is a bad sign. It shouldn't be this hard to figure out the basics.
  - stavros 3y ago
    I don't see people having trouble grasping the technical specifics, I see a lot of people having knee-jerk reactions and reacting to their own assumptions of how Passkeys work.
    - eep_social 3y ago
      Because you are a) not explaining as well as you seem to believe and b) reacting with hostility and snobbery when you are called out on that fact.
  - brookst 3y ago
    > It shouldn't be this hard to figure out the basics Why not? There are lots of great things in the world that are easy and a joy to use, but fairly challenging to learn the technical details of. The electricity grid, airplanes, microwave ovens, you name it. Tons of straightforward user experiences that take some work to understand.
NikolaNovak 3y ago
Somewhat fair criticism, but also somewhat unfair. A lot of us are trying to read up and understand, and so we post questions in forums like these with knowledgeable folks, in hopes to enhance our understanding and reduce our concern. One counter point though is that... if there is a new lifesaving technology, and even the somewhat IT literate / somewhat geeky / folks who WANT to understand it, are struggling... it may not be as simple and easy and safe. If I ask "how do I backup my passwords", I'll have 10 million folks answer "use a password manager, backup the file". When I ask similar questions with passkeys, the breadth,inconsistency and complexity of answers is as insightful as it is worrisome.
- brookst 3y ago
  No complaints with questions, but many of the questions are in the form of assertions that are incorrect. "Does that mean that passkeys can't be shared between users or devices?" is a 100% reasonable question. "Passkeys are a step backward because they can't be shared between users or devices" is not really a question, it's an opinion based on imagination. And passwords are just as complex. How do you securely share a login with another user? Yes, there's complexity, but it's complexity born of a change in paradigm. The actual new thing is either equally simple or simpler than traditional passwords, once you factor in scenarios like backup, transfer, multi-device sync, sharing, etc. It's just different.

Thank you. It is disheartening that so many HN readers would rather imagine how passkeys work, and freak out at their own imaginings, than just learn the real thing.

stavros 3y ago

Yep, that's what frustrates me as well, especially for a technology that will be a massive gift to both security and usability.

barbazoo 3y ago
Have a look around this thread. Lots of smart people having difficulties figuring out how this works. This is a bad sign. It shouldn't be this hard to figure out the basics.
- stavros 3y ago
  I don't see people having trouble grasping the technical specifics, I see a lot of people having knee-jerk reactions and reacting to their own assumptions of how Passkeys work.
  - eep_social 3y ago
    Because you are a) not explaining as well as you seem to believe and b) reacting with hostility and snobbery when you are called out on that fact.
- brookst 3y ago
  > It shouldn't be this hard to figure out the basics Why not? There are lots of great things in the world that are easy and a joy to use, but fairly challenging to learn the technical details of. The electricity grid, airplanes, microwave ovens, you name it. Tons of straightforward user experiences that take some work to understand.

NikolaNovak 3y ago

Somewhat fair criticism, but also somewhat unfair. A lot of us are trying to read up and understand, and so we post questions in forums like these with knowledgeable folks, in hopes to enhance our understanding and reduce our concern. One counter point though is that... if there is a new lifesaving technology, and even the somewhat IT literate / somewhat geeky / folks who WANT to understand it, are struggling... it may not be as simple and easy and safe. If I ask "how do I backup my passwords", I'll have 10 million folks answer "use a password manager, backup the file". When I ask similar questions with passkeys, the breadth,inconsistency and complexity of answers is as insightful as it is worrisome.

brookst 3y ago
No complaints with questions, but many of the questions are in the form of assertions that are incorrect. "Does that mean that passkeys can't be shared between users or devices?" is a 100% reasonable question. "Passkeys are a step backward because they can't be shared between users or devices" is not really a question, it's an opinion based on imagination. And passwords are just as complex. How do you securely share a login with another user? Yes, there's complexity, but it's complexity born of a change in paradigm. The actual new thing is either equally simple or simpler than traditional passwords, once you factor in scenarios like backup, transfer, multi-device sync, sharing, etc. It's just different.