I’ve avoided “passkeys” like the plague, but with Google [promising a password-less future](https://safety.google/authentication/passkey/) and Apple [forcefully moving people to passkeys going forward](https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/10125/?time=258), I guess it’s time to figure out what they are.
I consider myself a tech person, but the more I hear about these *passkeys*, the less I understand. Apple’s [overview](https://developer.apple.com/passkeys/) says that they’ll be used “alongside” passwords, so I don’t get what’s being **replaced**, and why the hell we need them. Fido Alliance (the folks that apparently invented the damn thing) says that [passwords are a problem](https://fidoalliance.org/passkeys/), but reading this, it doesn’t seem like it’s **my** problem they talk about.
What I **do** understand though, is that one day I’ve had someone walk into my hotel room in Poland, and walk out with my laptop and cell phone while I was asleep^1.
**So, overnight, I ended up without access to any of my devices or phone number abroad**.
Luckily, because I was still in the password-ful past, I could log into my email and Skype from hotel’s computer, and let my wife know that I need some help.
what this scenario wood look like in the future when everything gets switched to passkeys.
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^(**[1]:**) ^(I have forgotten to lock the door – learn from my mistake. To Krakow police’s credit, they *actually caught the thief* several months later.)
In: Technology
All security is a series of trade-offs. Ease of use, cost, likelihood of attacks succeeding, etc. – and further sub-trade-offs in terms of which scenarios have which set of optimizations.
To directly answer your question: in the future version of that scenario, you log into your primary account (e.g. Google account, Apple account) from another device. If you have multiple devices on hand, this is easy. If not, it might be harder than it is right now. You might have to go through a special verification / account recovery process.
In eli5 terms – passkeys reduce the risk of *digital* crime or accidents across multiple vectors, while increasing the risk of *physical* crime or accidents across some vectors.
This is widely considered a good trade-off right now because the average person is subject to digital risk at a much greater rate than physical risk.
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