Infinex is testing a new Chrome browser extension that allows users to log in to the top 100 cryptographic sites in 20 chains using older phones with fingerprints or face unlocks.
Log in and approve using PassKey on your phone tied to a Google or Apple account is much easier for new users than learning about wallets and seed phrases, and for existing users it is more convenient than using ledger or Trezor to approve all transactions.
“Understanding the security of seed phrases, as well as the secret key Opsec etetera, was challenging for most people and a filter to guide people to the chain,” founder Kain Warwick told Singapore’s Cointelegraph last week.
But while PassKey Systems offers extremely good security, it’s not as bomb-proof as a dedicated Crypto hardware wallet that is almost impossible to hack.
As hardware wallet maker Ledger points out, there is a risk that users could sign malicious transactions and trick users into putting their screens at risk, as seen in vulnerabilities in the recently patched Unity Android gaming platform.
The secure enclave of phones where Passkeys are held is also a form of tees compromised by attackers who can gain physical access.
So, it provides intermediate ground for users who need more convenient access to working capital, but may not be the right storage method for Bitcoin Zilla.
“It’s a really better solution for the average user,” Warwick argued. “If you have $1 billion, there’s probably a different OPSEC approach.”
Early supporters of Infinex, known as patrons, began testing today’s system with around 40 Defi apps, including Aave, Uniswap, Hyperliquid, Polymarket, Pumper.fun, Opensea, and Jupiter.
Warwick admitted that “there are still some small gremlins,” but he was sure the iron would be given by the time the system was released to retail.
He said PassKeys has already secured $5 billion on Infinex on TVL.
Why is PassKeys not used more frequently in Crypto?
Despite its ease of use, the decentralized financial sector in the Crypto industry has been surprisingly slow to adopt Google and Apple’s Passkeys.
You can upgrade your wallet with seed phrases to use PassKeys, but new users do not need seed phrases. It moves from device to device and offers secure recovery options.
Related: Phishing scams cost over $12 million users in August – Here’s how to stay safe
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39 guided us in 2013 to broad adoption of seed phrases, but brute force is almost impossible, but anyone who can access written backups or share phrases by users using phishing can drain 100% of their wallet funds.
Other major wallets are beginning to offer passkeys and biometric authentication. The leader of Smart Wallet Market, Safe offers PassKeys, but the majority of the accounts there are multi-signatures and support only EVM chains.
The Solana Seeker Phone uses Thumbprint to approve transactions, but is only Solana and remains a relatively niche product with 150,000 units shipped. Phantom Wallet (and other phone wallets) provide biometric logins to the Crosschain wallet app, but they still rely on private keys and seed phrases.
MetaMask is the dominant player in this space, with market shares exceeding 60% per month and 30 million users. You are using seed phrases and passwords to access the standard browser interface. Following the introduction of account abstractions earlier this year, MetaMask has begun offering passkeys for smart accounts. However, only a small portion of your ETH wallet has been upgraded.
Passkeys offers greater phishing protection
Passkeys also helped reduce the risk of phishing, resulting in the loss of $12.5 million in cryptocurrency in August alone.
“The way you create a passkey is that it is locked to your domain. So if you have a PassKey for Amazon, you cannot accidentally log in to a fake Amazon site someone has created,” Warwick explained.
But that prevents PassKey from compromise on malicious sites, but users can be fooled by Phishers to sign something when using the extension. Infinex bridges the gap by leveraging real-time threat monitoring via whitelisted Dapps and BlockAid.
The patrons who participated in the NFT-based fundraising round have proven to be a delightful group of beta testers this year.
Around 200 users traded a volume of $100 million a month, but the beta tested the high lipid integration of the platform, which was released last week.
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