Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Passkeys: What the Heck and Why?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is related to my post on ODD.dev but is different from it. We begin with WebAuthn to allow  public key cryptography to replace passwords using a security device (example, example) to create private and public keys. The public keys are shared but the private keys are locked to the device. "What makes it useful is that only data signed with the private key can be verified with the public key. That's the portion that replaces a password." Passkeys unlock the private keys, allowing us to store them in the cloud or on another device. Naturally, "Google's and Apple's passkeys platforms do not communicate with each other." Because, of course. That's why it's a better idea to have a distributed and personally owned passkey system, rather than depending on commercial providers.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 2:28 p.m.

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