A new project (WKID) attempts to revive Mozilla’s decentralized email-based BrowserID/Persona protocol, which died in 2016.
Key Takeaways
BrowserID let users authenticate across sites using their email domain without a central identity broker tracking logins.
The new revival is branded WKID (Well-Known Identity Discovery), positioning itself as a successor rather than a straight Persona fork.
By the author’s own admission, major providers – Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud – will never be supported, shrinking the addressable base significantly.
Portier (portier.github.io) already exists as a maintained BrowserID/Persona successor, raising a prior-art question the project must answer.
Hacker News Comment Review
A former Mozilla engineer identifies the deepest structural flaw: almost no users actually want to hide login activity from their identity provider, making the core privacy pitch a non-starter before any UX problems arise.
Commenters challenge whether WKID represents a new definition of success – if the big four email providers are excluded by design, “BrowserID but it works” is not a meaningful claim.
The naming itself draws skepticism; in a 2026 climate of browser fingerprinting and digital-ID legislation, “BrowserID” reads as surveillance tech to non-technical audiences.
Notable Comments
@briansmith: Mozilla insider confirms the privacy-hiding feature was the core premise – and almost nobody cared enough to choose it over convenience.
@aragilar: Points to Portier as the existing Persona replacement; the post does not address why WKID is preferable.
@apimade: Quotes the author’s own framing – “BrowserID failed in 2016, but WKID won’t” – then dismantles it: big providers excluded, and Persona already exists as a launchable baseline.
