Which Smart Card to choose for Librem 5?

hear-hear ! and for it to have a metal case like the bootable-live thumb-drive on the Purism-shop … 3-in-1 makes everybody happy :wink:

The problem with a USB-C Librem Key is that it would only be useful if you either happen to have a USB-C port on every device where you need it or take a USB-C to USB-A adapter with you everywhere you go.

Similarly, if you have a regular Librem Key, it’s compatible with the Librem 5 and the Pinephone as long as you have a USB-A to USB-C adapter, but then you have to take that with you everywhere too.

People with more disposable income than I have might opt to get both a USB-C and a USB-A key, but again that’s two devices you have to keep up with.

With the smartcard, you can just leave it in your phone all the time and still have hardware-level protection against someone stealing your secret key without having to keep up with an extra, separate device.

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So you are now discussing to use one key / smart card for multiple devices. I thought this is not possible. I inteded to prepare a smart card before receiving my L5 to be able to start right away. Despite L5 smart card reader not working immediately in Evergreen:
Is that possible to prepare a smart card with my current desktop PC and then use it in L5?
E.g. Open PGP smart card as linked here before from FOSS-Shop?

Thank you in advance, I am prett noob in that case.

The other side of the coin is … that isn’t the only thing that the Librem Key can do.

So it depends on why exactly a customer wants a smartcard / Librem Key.

Or, in an ideal world, a two-ended USB device that can plug into either USB-A or USB-C. USB flash drives already exist that can do that so it is not completely blueskying that one day the Key might do that.

I could be wrong but I think you can only use the Key with one device for boot tamper protection. So you would choose to use it with your laptop (USB-A) or you would choose to use it with your phone (USB-C) but having made that choice, you can’t readily flip between them - so two-ended support would be more for convenience (of not needing an adapter) or flexibility (could redeploy by resetting?).

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I’d much rather have a USB Type-A to Type-C adapter on my [laptop] and (have a smaller device?) than carry it around to use on my phone constantly.


Also, why would I want to leave my security key in the device? I’d keep it attached to me in or on a belt or in a metal wallet that’s chained to my pants and only take it out when I need to authenticate. Phones are too easy to lose one way or another.
Additionally, if it’s a business sized smartcard, that would also fit squarely in my other computers. :sunglasses: