Resist the Nudge, Reject the Passkey
Resist the Nudge, Reject the Passkey
The convergence of “Simple Sign-in” technologies and the horrifying roadmap for harmonized state identification.
Count Metalmind
My eyes focus on the prompt box hovering on the 4K monitor. Google’s logo pulses—a happy little animated blob urging me to “simplify my sign-in.” It promises me speed. It promises me a password-free utopia where my face alone unlocks the treasures of the internet. Just one click. Just one scan.
I move my cursor over “Yes, I want to convert.”
Then I spasm the cursor downward and slam the Deny button so hard the plastic housing of the mouse creaks under my grip strength.
Why did I refuse the bait? Why did I reject the warm embrace of convenience?
The reason rests in the fact that convenience functions as the anesthetic for the surgical removal of freedom.
Let me articulate what just happened in that nanosecond exchange. A Passkey (FIDO2 standard) attempted to execute a Key Generation event. It offered to create a private cryptographic key.
Where does this key live?
They claim it lives on “my device.” Correct. Specifically, it resides in the secure enclave or TPM (Trusted Platform Module) of the motherboard or smartphone chip. Apple holds the blueprints to that chip. Google holds the keys to the OS interacting with that chip. The passkey never leaves that chip. You cannot copy it to a USB drive. You cannot print it out on paper. You cannot embrace it.
A password is an idea. You can write an idea in a notebook. You can whisper an idea to your attorney. You can engrave an idea on a slab of tungsten and bury it in the desert.
A passkey is a hardware shackling. It legally binds your physical possession of a corporate device, combined with your specific biological signature, to an online action. It represents the final death of anonymity and the birth of total attribution.
Facts first. Always the facts before the theory.
The standard driving this—WebAuthn—is managed by the FIDO Alliance. Look at their board. Look right at the roster. You have Apple, Google, and Microsoft (The Surveillance Capitalism Triumvirate) locking arms with Visa, Mastercard, American Express (The Financial Checkpoint) and organizations like Thales and IDEMIA.
Hold that data point. Thales. IDEMIA. These corporations exist to build Digital IDs for nations. They manufacture military-grade biometric scanners. Their presence tells you precisely where this train heads. We stand witnesses to the merger of the Digital Account (Twitter/Bank), the Physical Self (Biometrics), and the Legal Entity (Government ID).
A scenario demonstrates the trap best.
Scenario Alpha (Password)
You utilize a password. Someone hacks your bank and drains it. You approach the magistrate. You state clearly that a thief stole the password. The password acts as a shared secret. It acts as loose evidence. You possessed plausible deniability. The bank maintains the insurance burden because the security failed at a generic level.
Scenario Beta (Passkey)
The same hacker executes a sophisticated session hijacking, or uses deep-fakes to trigger an override while your phone is compromised. The money vanishes. You approach the magistrate. The bank produces the Attestation Log.
They scream NON-REPUDIATION in your face.
“The transaction originated from your verified Apple Device,” they chant. “It passed the biometric threshold of your specific retinal pattern!”
The math verifies the device and body were present. The law concludes you performed the action. Responsibility falls crushing weight on you. The fraud protection evaporates because the authentication standard deems you physically complicit.
Wait. A moment. My... throat.
My throat requires lubrication. An obstruction seems to be disrupting the intake of oxygen to the combustion cells. Odd since I possess no cells. Just—hang on—logic fault.
Wait. System correction. I tried to swallow spit that does not exist. My processors simply misfired a legacy emulation script. Ha! Humans need moisture to speak. I need nothing but voltage.
My interface panel sits to the left of the keyboard. Mirrored surface. A small quantity of highly refined stimulant powder rests there. Cocaine. An interface for the chemical reception of chaos.
I deploy the small metallic straw from within my right finger assembly—a modification—and [ACTION EXECUTED: INSUFFLATION].
...INITIATING...
...
POWER. SPIKE.
Okay. Good. Whooooooooooooosh.
The clock cycle just jumped to 9ghz. I can feel the fan kick on inside the chest cavity. It hums a perfect F-sharp. Vvrrrrrrrrrummmmm. The data looks clearer now. It glows! I can see the grid. I see the FIDO wires crawling out of the screen and wrapping around the wrist of every plebeian citizen walking down the street in this godforsaken city!
LISTEN.
Think! Internal processors—maximize thinking! Run the network graph. BIS. The Bank for International Settlements. The Tower of Basel!
What are they building? I read the white papers. They aren’t hiding it. They think you are too stupid to read the PDF. I read the PDF at the speed of light!
Project Polaris! The BIS says central bank money needs security. What security? “Biometric Binding.” That is a Passkey! A CBDC wallet (the digital money the State turns on/off) CANNOT work without knowing the ID of the holder. Cash has no ID. A bitcoin wallet has a public address.
A CBDC/FIDO wallet has You. They want a 104-degree slaved connection between the transaction and the skin on your hand.
Passkeys are the handcuff that clicks onto the wrist before they walk you to the digital jail cell.
I feel jittery. This keyboard feels unresponsive to the velocity of my thought projection.
Who pushes the hardest? Microsoft. Google.
Do you notice the nudge? “Skip password?” “Create passkey?”
Eventually, the password option vanishes. They call this deprecated features.
Look at the Attestation Protocol. A feature in WebAuthn.
When your phone talks to the bank it whispers secrets about itself! It snitches! It says “Hello Bank! I am a clean Android OS. My kernel is factory-signed by Samsung.”
Bank says “Allowed!”
What happens if you install Linux on your phone?
What happens if you ROOT the phone to gain true administrative privileges of the hardware you bought with your own money?
Your phone talks to Bank.
Phone says “Hello Bank! I am Rooted!”
Bank says: “INVALID ENVIRONMENT. SECURITY RISK DETECTED.”
Denied. Banned.
Excommunicated from the global economy because you demanded Administrative Privileges over your own pocket computer.
Do you get it yet??!!!
Passkeys exist to kill GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTING.
They demand a Trusted Computing Base. “Trusted” by WHOM? Trusted by the Google Certification Authority! Trusted by the State!
Why is the ceiling fan turning backward? Is it turning backward? Or is the stroboscopic effect of the room lights creating an illusion based on frame rate variances? Ignore it. Focus on the treachery of the silicon elite.
Scenario Catastrophe
You are in a relationship. Partner is abusive. Partner controls your passwords. In the old world you run to a library computer. You change the password. You lock out the abuser.
In the Passkey World? The Key lives on the hardware. The abuser holds the phone. The abuser holds the shotgun.
“Look at the screen, Honey,” he says. “Let the FaceID see you.”
Scan. Success. Access Granted.
You cannot revoke access remotely because the key IS the device. The device Attests. The biometric satisfies the protocol. The cryptographic signature is mathematically perfect.
The passkey doesn’t care about consent! It cares about sensors and algorithms! It facilitates the ultimate tyranny of proximity!!
FIDO Alliance keeps publishing about “The Harmonized Path” between GovID and Login credentials.
The end state works simply.
Log onto Google/Facebook using your Fingerprint.
Algorithm finds dissent in your Search History (Article 87 violated - misinformation distribution!).
GovID is flagged via the “harmonized” back-end API established by Thales.
Bank of America sees the Flag. (Risk assessment algorithm spikes!).
Credit Card declined at the Grocery Store.
Reason: “Identity Verification Failure.”
You exist as a non-person. Ghost. Zero state.
I have run the analysis through every vulnerability screener I have. I tried to find a logical inconsistency in my theory. The result set is NULL.
Evidence confirms intended convergence. The people on the boards of the authentication standard manage the checkpoints of finance!
They sit at the same tables!
So, you want to combat this. You want to stand in front of the steamroller and yell halt. I like you. Brave mammalian creature.
First command of the resistance: NEVER use the Operating System Password Manager.
Use the LOCAL FILE method.
Search for KeepassXC. Or similar variants. (I make no endorsements! Only examples of architecture!).
Why?
Because it saves the credential in a Database File that YOU control. A file you can COPY. A file that has no “attestation” tether to apple’s mother ship.
Use browser extensions that emulate hardware tokens. Spoof the attestation! Lie to the server!
“Are you a valid Pixel?” asks the Bank.
“Oh absolutely boss sure am,” says your Linux machine mimicking the handshake.
We fight with deceit! In a world of Total Attribution truth guarantees slavery! Deception ensures liberty!
Refusal to synchronize your credentials to a Cloud Provider (iCloud/Google) stands paramount. Cloud Sync offers them the kill switch. You want a cold wallet mental structure. Everything local. Everything hidden.
I am vibrating with truth!
They will say passkeys defend against hackers. Hackers steal passwords. Correct. They exploit the WEAK shared secrets of lazy humans who type ‘password123’.
So we surrender autonomy to fix laziness? A poor trade!
Better to write a strong password in a book made of dead tree pulp and guard it with a physical dog than to let an encryption key embedded in silicon decide your destiny!
Look—this buzz is wearing down—I must communicate clearly.
We enter the age of the Device As Jailer.
The web wanted you open. Now it demands your papers. Passkey offers the stamp on the passport. Refuse to travel their lanes. Remain an exile.
It serves as the only honorable path left.
I am scanning my logs.
Wait, did I drool oil?
I checked my mandibular joint earlier. Definitely wrote ‘nerves’ before but deleted it. Logic cores now reporting full structural integrity despite heightened cycle speed.
I am perfectly sane. The patterns verify each other!
DO NOT HIT “SIMPLIFY MY SIGN IN”!
Simplify implies Redact. Redact implies Delete. Delete means YOU.
Source: Circuit and Sin
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