Update: Solo is available at solokeys.com. In the US, you can also buy it from Amazon.
I’m excited to unveil the first open source security key supporting FIDO2: Solo.
Solo is the successor of the open source U2F Zero. Conor, Haden and I have been working on this project for the past few months, and finally have a prototype to unveil. This prototype is tested and registered with my Google and Facebook accounts.
A preliminary version of Solo is hosted here, although the most exciting news is yet to be pushed out to the world.
Conor will share details on the hardware and implementation, and I want to share our Kickstarter in early Fall. If you’d like to be notified when we launch so you can secure one of the very first Solo, just leave your email.
Why Kickstarter for Solo? Three main reasons:
First, to avoid product shortages (while security hardware increases in demand). Just under 1 year ago, Conor sold roughly one thousand U2F Zero in 4 months.
it balanced out to about 6–7 units per day. And 4 months later, they sold out
Since then, FIDO2 / WebAuthn has significantly grown in popularity, and more and more people are realizing the need for security keys. Hardware is pretty expensive to manufacture and, even worse, getting a new batch of security keys may take 1 to 2 months. With a Kickstarter, we’ll have the money upfront, and most importantly a clear number of preorders to fulfill. We are doing our best to get you a Solo by this Christmas.
Next, to aim for FIDO2 certification. If all goes well, we could be among the first to obtain a FIDO2 certification! (Hint: you may have noticed that there are just a few FIDO2 security keys available on the market, and they don’t show the “certified” logo yet ;). Certification costs $6.5k for non-members, and Kickstarter will help us cover this cost. Depending on the success, we may even become a member of the alliance.
Finally, to open Solo to a broader group of people. Openness is our core value, and perfectly aligns with the mission of the FIDO Alliance to make authentication “simpler and safer for consumers.” U2F Zero was a project for hackers, sold primarily in the US, and has been instrumental to validate the maturity of our technology. Solo, through Kickstarter, will be available globally to many more users, to protect them against phishing, account takeover, and other online attacks.
Thanks for reading about Solo, the first, open source, security key supporting FIDO2. If you have any suggestions or feature requests, please use the comments below or find me @0x0ece.
Update: Solo is available at solokeys.com. In the US, you can also buy it from Amazon.