

Ask HN: Viable alternatives to passwords on the web? - mattew

I use probably 20+ web applications in the context of running my business and my personal life.  For me, the current password based authentication/identification systems employed on the web are fundamentally broken.  There are simply too many sites to keep track of, and since I access these services on multiple machines (home, work, iPad, iPod touch), its difficult to find a password keeper that works across these platforms.<p>It seems to me there is a fundamental plumbing opportunity on the interwebs with regard to providing a viable solution for identification and authentication.  I know openid has taken a run at this, along with google and others, but none of them have really taken off.<p>Is anyone out there working on solving this problem?  I realize its a big problem, but it seems also to be a big opportunity.
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wwortiz
I think everyone is still better off with a password manager system
(1password, lastpass, keepass) at this point in time.

OpenID seems to be more troublesome than it is worth and I have avoided
registering for one, as well as avoiding those facebook and twitter logins.

It would be interesting to see a largely adopted solution but for some users
like me the per site username and password system is still the preferred way
to log in.

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yuvadam
OpenID is by far the most comprehensive solution to this issue.

All the key players are there: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, et al - and even then
it's not as simple as it seems.

I would put my money on OpenID, nonetheless. It's definitely a mature protocol
and gaining traction.

