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Ask HN: How can self-custody of identity and digital assets go mainstream?

3 pointsby 7ewisover 2 years ago
I&#x27;m not looking for a debate on crypto, I know there are arguments for and against it.<p>There are risks involved in holding assets in centralised locations. I do like the idea of us being able to &#x27;own&#x27; our own identity online, maybe that&#x27;s a digital password, driving license or just as a login to a website.<p>I just don&#x27;t see how this can ever go mainstream though. Hardware wallets are great, but they&#x27;re nowhere near ready to be used by non tech people. I don&#x27;t think we&#x27;ll ever be able to trust people to _not_ lose their secret keys.<p>The problems I see with adoption are:<p>1) Why would governments or businesses back this when it means they&#x27;d just lose the current control they have today?<p>2) How do we deal with theft, loss?<p>3) How can we improve the usability?<p>I can imagine security keys built into phones becoming an important aspect, but in reality I don&#x27;t see ownership of physical assets or identity moving to a blockchain. As far as I can see, we&#x27;ll almost always need some centralisation and adjudicator of this data.

1 comment

wmfover 2 years ago
Do passkeys count as self-custody?