Comment by kapilkale | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kapilkale | Hacker News Reader

Someone pitched me this idea a few months ago and I urged him to pursue it. I'm glad to see that it's being done by a super technical team who seem to know what they're doing.

Here's why I'm so excited:

1. Shloosl solves a small but acute problem that nearly everyone in the country has.

2. It's a big FU to a fragmented and unevolving couple billion dollar industry. I don't want to find a locksmith or go to Home Depot. I just want a duplicate key. And I don't care whether I pay $1.50 for it or $10 for it.

3. It's going to have some interesting implications on physical security in society. Locks are already useless to any unskilled criminal with a $100 lockpicking gun. But now, any clown with an iPhone can take a picture of a set of keys and have a working copy sent to anyone in the country within days. I certainly hope the security industry responds with something good.

I'd like to think the solution is a better kind of lock, but I don't know. Credit cards have been vulnerable in the same way for a while, but the networks or merchants essentially insure fraudulent transactions so it hasn't resulted in a real problem for people.

Either way, I'm looking forward to trying this out this weekend.

> I certainly hope the security industry responds with something good.

Security industry? As you said, it's unlikely they'll be surprised. I'd say if it catches on then we're much more likely to see legislation against these sorts of services unless they enforce valid IDs– hell, give it a month and I'm sure someone could find a way to spin it as a DMCA issue. That seems a whole lot easier to them than actually trying to solve the problem, which is that the locks we use are fundamentally insecure.

All in all though I do think it's a great idea, and I hope it does happen. I might even give it a try since I just welcomed a new roommate and it turns out I didn't have as many spare keys as I thought I did...

> It's a big FU to a fragmented and unevolving couple billion dollar industry. I don't want to find a locksmith or go to Home Depot. I just want a duplicate key. And I don't care whether I pay $1.50 for it or $10 for it.

Meh, I like the idea but I'd much rather just stop by Home Depot and use the automated key duplication machine for $1.50. Last time I needed spare keys I spent $10 and got myself a handful.

I love the technology behind this (though not the name--I will never remember this name), and I bet they'll be successful, but I honestly don't see this denting the key duplication industry in the slightest.

I suspect physical security in terms of keyholding is less fragile for people's house keys than it might seem on first blush. They're mostly in your pocket when you're out and about.

That said, you can stick many doors through in some parts of the world by simple expedient of giving them a swift kick. People don't seem overly concerned. So I suspect even if it proved simple to get pictures, it would have to be horribly abused before people did anything about it.

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