[Wowfunhappy]

> Yes, TOTP adds very little advantage when you have an already safe password. But there is no way for PyPI to know if you're doing that or not.

But there is! Pre-generate a password for the user, instead of letting them supply one. This adds no extra inconvenience if you're already using a password manager, but it makes password reuse impossible.

[staticassertion]

So make a proposal for them to do that.

[Wowfunhappy]

Okay, this is me proposing it! :)

I'm not the first person to come up with this idea. I think if PyPI had taken the approach of "here are our concerns, here is what we're protecting, here are some different options to make this work in the most convenient way possible", that would have been received very differently. Instead, they issued an ultimatum.

[staticassertion]

I think you'll find that in the course of making an actual formal proposal there are more caveats than you might imagine, and not necessarily as many upsides.

For example, just off the top of my head;

2FA as a general solution allows for U2F, which is significantly safer than your solution, even if it also allows for TOTP, which is "only" as safe as your solution.

It's also a change in user experience. Migrating users with existing passwords over to these new passwords may be more difficult for any number of reasons.

That's just a few seconds of thought. A real proposal might explicitly address these concerns. Like I said, feel free to make that proposal. A post on HN is not going to cut it, and it isn't going to help anyone. If you want to be more involved in how PyPI is maintained I suggest you do so.