Passkey

Passkeys and hardware keys, what is the difference?
April 30, 2026 Editorial Passkey

The word “passkey” started showing up in marketing material in 2023. By 2026 it is everywhere. Apple, Google, and Microsoft all market passkey support. Banks now offer passkeys. Password managers all sync them. Browsers prompt you to create a passkey on every login.

If you have been using hardware security keys for years, the marketing is confusing, because it talks about passkeys as if they are something new. They are not. Passkeys are a marketing name for a technology that has shipped in your hardware key since FIDO2 launched.

Crypto wallets, smartphones, and other things that double as FIDO keys
April 30, 2026 Editorial Passkey

The catalog focuses on dedicated FIDO security keys, the kind of small USB or NFC device whose only purpose in life is to be a hardware authenticator. There is a growing category of devices whose primary purpose is something else, but which can also act as a FIDO2 key. These are worth knowing about, both because they sometimes overlap with what you already own, and because their tradeoffs are different from a dedicated key.