Create a Key

… on your local laptop.

gpg2 --gen-key
# here we select
#   RSA
#   size: 2048 or 4096

Warning

For Yubikeys, only generation 4 and newer support RSA key sizes of 4096!

Note

One can also generate keys directly on the smartcard. Doing so has a list of pro’s and con’s that we need to inform you about first (to do).

Now, list your new keys.

Revocation Key

Note

A revocation key is not sensitive for encrypted data. Still, anyone who can access your revocation keys can publicly and provably mark your keys as invalid. For most use cases, just keep is as safe as your privaye key backups.