Remind me again

Why don't websites use public keys for authentication instead of passwords?

>>28

Most of the internet protocols are designed to be the simplest possible and obvious design

this is true for older internet protocols but not for the newer ones, especially the ones intended for security. this is not only due to security requirements but also because we don't want to replace the whole proto when one of the primitives becomes insecure - unfortunately, the complexity of those protocols can make them less secure (see: downgrade attacks)