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Is this sarcasm? If not please provide some more details on why you think "2FA was in large part motivated by limiting bot accounts and getting customers phone number". I never used a phone number for 2fa. Mostly TOTP. Bots could do that too. I don't see the connection.

>I can't imagine how much productivity the economy loses every day due to 2FA.

Is it really that much? Every few days I have to enter a 6 digit number I generate on a device I have with me all the time. Writing this comment took me as much time as using 2fa for a handful of services for a month.




> ? Every few days I have to enter a 6 digit number I generate on a device I have with me all the time.

I use more than one service a day, and some infrequently, so for me about every day I have a minute or two where I try to login, need to find my phone (it's not predictable when it will ask), and then type it in. This happens to every person several times a day!

I also now must carry a smart phone with me to participate in society.

But the main drag is that when people lose or break their phones the response is: "just don't do that" and the consequences range from losing your account to calling customer service.

> Mostly TOTP. Bots could do that too. I don't see the connection.

Most people using 2FA do not use TOTP, they use a phone number.

Bots could use TOTP, it's more infrastructure, and it's a proof of work function for them to login.


While I don't take starcraft2wol's theory seriously, there are a bunch of services that have made phone numbers essentially mandatory. They claim this is to "protect your account".

You sign up for a Skype account or Twitter account and decline to give your phone number, instead choosing a different form of 2FA? In my experience your account will be blocked for 'suspicious activity' even if you have literally no activity.


And you still don't take my theory seriously :)




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