WebAuthn

WebAuthn is a browser-native public key cryptography layer. I first learned about WebAuthn from Ludens in the 0xPARC discord here:

Justin ahead of the curve as always. I’ve been doing deep dives into WebAuthn’s applications to ZK and cryptography in general since then, and I have been able to advance the state of the art in a number of places!

My first e2e project with WebAuthn was heyauthn! This used parts of the WebAuthn protocol to generate/store/persist a Semaphore identity safely for use in anonymous ZK applications.

I am super excited about its applications to:

• Passkeys

  • Giving everyone public keys everywhere!

• Semaphore

  • Using WebAuthn to store semaphore identities for easier access to ZK applications
  • Security is equivalent to guessing a UUID, which should be secure enough for initial applications until better support
  • Can make much better with PRF

• The Wonders of WebAuthn PRF

  • The upcoming PRF extension can power so many cool things!