[kseifried]

The problem with that is people don't have fire safes. Or homes in some cases (e.g. many unhoused people have smartphones now). Also people need to travel and do recovery without having to fly home to their safe.

The idea that printing a backup is easy and an option for many people is often not the case.

[rtsil]

And that is why most people use a single, easy to remember password for everything: even if their house burns, their devices are gone and they no longer have their phone number, they can still remember their password.

For all of its many weaknesses, a password has that one major advantage over all the other authentication methods, and unless a new method provides a similar advantage, most people will keep using a password, just like they did even with the appearance of private keys, biometrics, USB tokens, SMS or TOTP.

[dsego]

And it's a hassle to keep it in sync. If you decide to update your password you need to remember to print out a copy and store it in the safe, oh and throw out the old one.

[xg15]

> (e.g. many unhoused people have smartphones now)

I go out on a limb and say one smartphone usually - that is at heightened risk of getting stolen. With passwords, the person would probably just pick something they can remember in case the phone gets stolen. With passkeys, what should they do?

[secabeen]

> The idea that printing a backup is easy and an option for many people is often not the case.

Fair enough, but that is an argument for multiple durable recovery and remediation solutions, which few of the current providers have.