I know there is data showing that adding meaningless security badges and icons to checkout designs increases users' perception of security, so I wouldn't be sur

I know there is data showing that adding meaningless security badges and icons to checkout designs increases users' perception of security, so I wouldn't be surprised if the fake progress bar was effective. I'm not sure if there is a better solution that doesn't misrepresent what's actually happening. Users sometimes have heuristics about the way that systems work which might be inaccurate. In this case, the heuristic is something like "doing work correctly takes time; failure happens quickly", where work is keeping your credentials secure. The fundamental problem is that it is difficult for users to differentiate between work done poorly from heavily optimized work done well.