The Passkey Promise: Are We Ready for Universal Adoption Across All Use Cases?
1 September 2025
The Passkey Promise: Are We Ready for Universal Adoption Across All Use Cases?
1 September 2025
Passkeys are rapidly reshaping the future of authentication. Built on FIDO standards and designed to eliminate passwords, they offer genuine phishing resistance and a vastly improved user experience, especially on mobile devices. With strong support from tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, their adoption is set to grow exponentially. According to the FIDO Alliance in their 2025 world passkey day report, over 75% of people are aware of passkey technology, and 69% have enabled them on one or more accounts.
However, it's crucial to look at any new technology from every angle. Just as SMS OTPs and call centers still have their place in certain scenarios, we must understand the precise role passkeys can and can't fill.
The Limits of Passkeys in High-Risk Scenarios
Passkeys excel in low-risk scenarios, such as logging into a music streaming service or a loyalty account. But for high-risk actions—like large financial transactions, sensitive account changes, or recovering an account on a brand-new device—there are real limitations.
The primary constraint is device dependency:
- Friction and Confusion: When a passkey is stored on one phone, accessing the account on a different device often involves using the CTAP (Client-to-Authenticator Protocol). This process frequently introduces friction and confusion for users, which can lead to frustrating drop-offs or a return to less secure fallbacks like SMS.
- Lack of Identity Proof: While passkeys are excellent at proving access to a device, they cannot prove identity. They do not intrinsically link the digital credential to the real human user. If the device is compromised, the account is compromised.
The Role of Decentralized Biometrics
By contrast, third-party biometrics, particularly decentralized ones, are built to address these high-risk identity challenges. They can:
- Tie authentication to both the user (face) and the device.
- Offer seamless recovery if a device is lost.
- Provide strong identity assurance necessary for high-value transactions and sensitive actions.
The True Future of Authentication
The future of authentication isn’t passkeys or biometrics—it’s both, used intelligently in the right context.
Don’t miss our full analysis on how to deploy these solutions effectively. We compare passkeys and biometrics side by side in The State of Authentication 2026—our flagship report that covers the five key forces reshaping authentication in the year ahead, including a deep dive into passkeys.
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