RE: Using the fingerprint Model of MEOS for Steem?
Yes, I understand all the functional advantages, and I'm 110% onboard with that idea. I came here to learn about the actual hardware. How will this biohoohah login work when I connect with my PC? It sounds like I'm going to have to buy some expensive peripheral device.
Once upon a time, there was this thing called a dongle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle
Second paragraph, where it talks about their initial use as a hardware solution to DRM.
In order for this idea to work and be secure, it's going to have to be prohibitively expensive. And for that reason alone, I don't think this solution is going to be practical.
And as for my "basic understanding of how private keys in crypto work", I believe I learned the fundamentals of that when PGP was new back in the 1990's. Ahem.
great! I guess you and your computer are not representative for the mass of users. Many devices out there are equipt with secure-enclave. It doesn't necessarily has to be your finger-ID. Face lock can also serve as input.
secure enclave processor is a standard used for apple and android os phones. It is a processor completely seperate from the application processor. The input device: your fingersensor, your face-ID camera is hardwired to the secure enclave processor (SEP).
The SEC itself is embedded in its own periphery a random number generator, a crypto-engine and so on. The few inputs it shares with the main stuf (the SoC) are filtered by a special mailbox.
A sensor costs around 2-7 dollars, but as I said they are already built in newer smart devices like smartphones, laptops, smart cards and probably smart home/IoT devices. Mass adoption on social Media means 13-30 year olds, my pc doesn't have that hardware either but most people around me do. A USB-Stick probably is a solution and works the same as a hardware wallet. They have also a separate processor which never comes in touch with the Internet.
Dongle
A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality.In computing, the term was initially synonymous with software protection dongles—a form of hardware digital rights management where a piece of software will only operate if a specified dongle—which typically contains a license key or some other cryptographic protection mechanism—is plugged into the computer while it is running.
The term has since been applied to other forms of devices with a similar form factor, such as adapters that convert ports to handle different types of connectors (such as DVI to VGA for displays, USB to serial connection, and in modern computing, USB-C to other types of ports, and Mobile High-Definition Link), USB wireless adapters for standards such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (the term "stick" or "key" is more commonly used to describe USB flash drives, as well as modern forms of dongles with slimmer form factors more akin to flash drives), and small form-factor digital media players that plug into HDMI ports.