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Comment by betwixthewires | Hacker News Reader

Well I thought I explained it effectively, but there are numerous scenarios where you'd want to use the same identity across multiple services, cross sharing of data, provable rights, etc. But that doesn't mean you're limited to one, or that you want to use it for every service you use. The benefit doesn't disappear, the benefit only applies when you want it. It isn't all or nothing.

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You just described OAuth/OIDC.

OAuth helps but it still forces you to rely on a single central provider as your "root". So it's not a complete solution.

> still forces you to rely on a single central provider as your "root"

So what ? I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

If people had some issue with this then users would simply not use OAuth and default to creating an account for each service they use.

> I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

It's not so immediate until you get banned, but they've all been gradually stepping up their politicised banwaves. And there's always the concern about what happens when one of them goes the way of Yahoo.

> If people had some issue with this then users would simply not use OAuth and default to creating an account for each service they use.

Which has huge practical headaches, to the point that OAuth being the least-bad option doesn't say a lot.

What's to stop e.g. Google from creating a blacklist of these public identities again?

Defaults and ease for site operators matter. Google could publish a blacklist but it would be opt-in, and if one blacklist starts being unreasonable then site operators can easily switch to another.

What's to stop Google from creating and using an internal blacklist - not for publishing.

Google can blacklist you from Google, but they wouldn't control your login to other sites the way they currently do with OAuth.

>>> I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

Using your Google account to log into everything is great....until your account gets locked.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/not-even-google-employees-can-unl...

>I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

Are you actually serious right now?

> If people had some issue with this then users would simply not use OAuth and default to creating an account for each service they use.

Do you really believe this? Plenty of people use services they don't particularly like because it's better than the alternative or they have an immediate need. I know lots of people who didn't want to use zoom but needed to, have a Facebook account to keep up with family even though they'd rather not, etc.

Plenty of people would love an option that works as easy as oauth but doesn't lock them to a FAANG provider. Just because they use it when there's not another option doesn't mean they wouldn't use another option if it existed.

Because the number won't go up if we don't decentralise it duh

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