Why Hardware-Bound Passkeys Still Struggle

Hardware-bound passkeys offer AAL3 assurance, but synced passkeys dominate consumer adoption. Here’s why distribution and UX matter more. Hardware-bound passkeys have a market problem, not a crypto problem Hardware-bound passkeys are the strongest consumer passkey model on paper. The private key stays inside a physical secure element, which is why they can reach NIST AAL3, while synced passkeys are capped at AAL2. But consumer adoption tells a different story. The FIDO Alliance Authentication Ba