Why most websites on the Internets require me to add second factor?

Question

As far as I understood, sending SMS is not free for website's owner. Also needness to "verify" is the email active might be very annoying for user, especially for that one who is not OK to store cookies. Why Internets are so bureaucratic nowadays? I remember the time when all I need was to verify e-mail only once for absolutely every website (twitter, fb, every mail provider, etc).Why everybody stopped think that phone might be lost or currently not functioning, e-mail might been banned or temporarily not available because of currently not functioning phone, etc. The worst part of status-quo is that this annoyances were started after Bitcoin showed us a perfect login system with totally single factor. It can be working either for human or for cat or for AI, you get the idea.What kind of evil joke is the second factor auth, why nobody learns anything from Bitcoin way?

bombolo · Accepted Answer

Website owners believe that your account on their website is the most important thing in your life, I guess.
Personally I never enable 2FA. I've even disabled it on my google account, after it had been forcefully enabled.
I think the chances of me losing/breaking my phone are higher than the chances of an hacker hijacking my account.
I'm completely ok with having 2FA for my bank account, or similar things.
There are important differences there:
* A bank has an office where I can show up with an ID if my 2FA should fail. A website will just lock my account.
* The stakes are much higher
* I have the option to have a hardware token that is NOT my phone.
As a side note, totp 2FA is the best kind. It's easy to back up (if you don't use google authenticator).

ggeorgovassilis · Answer

They pretend it is about your own safety, but it really is about preventing spam. The second factor increases the cost for a spammer to create fake accounts.