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Comment by EStudley | Hacker News Reader

Yet this product exists now. It could be possible that there's a way to unlock from a laptop, but grogenaut's argument is pretty logical as of whenever Bitlock would launch..

edit: Didn't notice you were OP. If I were to use this product and my phone were to die, what could I do?

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One option would be to borrow someone else's phone and log into the BitLock app and use their phone to lock and unlock. You can technically lock/unlock from your macbook/ipad since both have build-in bluetooth 4. But currently the app only works with iphone and android.

So Bitlock can unlock any bike they want? The key isn't stored locally?

The key would be only stored locally if you are the owner of the lock, otherwise you have to login to the app and check out a temporary (dynamic key) to unlock

which still means that the bitlock server could grant anybody the ability to unlock your lock

as the owner of the lock you can manage permissions through the app.

Also you can apply the same argument to Lockitron. They can grant access to anyone to open your door lock and I believe you have more valuable stuff at your house.

The same argument has been applied to Lockitron... connecting physical locks to the internet is just a bad idea.

More convenient, perhaps, but now in addition to jamming a pen into the lock or cutting the chain with a pair of cutters (or whatever myriad ways to physically assault the lock that there are) you have to worry about potential software exploits enabling remote entry from anywhere in the world. It seems to me that these things are, practically by design, exponentially less secure than their purely 'analog' counterparts.

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