Security platform REMME has taken the next step to eliminate passwords by using a blockchain solution which its founder calls a “digital passport”.
Probably the most frustrating aspect of today’s digital world is the plethora of passwords needed to get through a working day. Almost every site requires the user to play by different rules; use upper case/lower case, add a special character, try not to use the same password on multiple sites; the instructions are endless. Add to that the storage of up to 100 different passwords and the risk of losing the hidden cache of this alphanumeric accident waiting to happen, and today’s tech doesn’t seem to be improving anything.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology broke through with the first password in 1961. Flash forward half a century to salting, hashing, and encryption, and is cyberspace a safer place? Password-based systems still remain vulnerable to hacking as illustrated by world media citing endless reports of missing funds, private data, and even stolen identities.
Size doesn’t matter either; Apple’s iCloud password hack of 2014 is well documented and Yahoo had suffered an earlier hack in 2012 of 400,000 email addresses. Even before that in 2011, 77 million Sony PlayStation Network passwords went astray. Clearly, the IT industry wasn’t learning from past mistakes.
Enter the cryptocurrency sector, which managed to cover huge ground in just a few years, enabling users to login password free, the first example being the Trezor Connect cold storage wallet which simply allowed the user to log in by simply plugging in their hardware wallet. Today Secure Quick Reliable Login (SQRL) has bought QR codes to the cell phone making logins quick and easy.
SSL certification has taken the login process even further with its data stored on a blockchain rendering it un-hackable due to the lack of a centralized server or password database to attack. REMME founder Alex Momot claimed that the “digital password” idea came to him when he lost his own password:
“The idea first came to me when I lost my password to [my] Ethereum genesis wallet way back in 2015. In the end, I was able to guess the password, but it became a final countdown for REMME. From this event, the idea of REMME WebAuth 1-click user authentication was born.”
With his system, users are issued keys on signing out that are used only once when signing back in and are then destroyed; with a different key they can also be used with 2FA for added security, hence no need for that database or book of keys and passwords. Momot asserts that his aim is to turn the way we log in on its head using blockchain.
“The first goal is that we want to eliminate the weakest point, which are passwords from the authentication process and provide better authentication for users and for devices. But the key point is how we want to do that – with the help of blockchain.”
It just remains now for the rest of the world to get on board with blockchain in order to circumnavigate the alphanumeric nightmare which has become such an essential but frustrating part of everybody’s daily life.
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