Ledger Recover: the crypto functionality of discord

Recover from Ledger does not not unanimous. The tricolor manufacturer has envenomed the debate on the service stating that he had always been possible from recover the private keys of a portfoliobefore delete his tweet.

Earlier this week, the world’s number 1 hardware wallet maker Ledger launched a new feature optional feature called Recover. Available as a subscription monthly, it allows you to recover your starting sentence in case of loss.

Concretely, Recover Splits the secret recovery phrase into three “encrypted fragments” that are then shared with three entities: Ledger, Coincover and a third unnamed provider. Users who have lost their passphrase can thus get their hands on it again by identifying themselves to these actors thanks to a KYC process carried out upstream.

“ Ledger Recover uses extensive identity verification processes performed by Coincover within a secure environment designed by Ledger. For added protection and subject to investigation, an indemnity of $50,000 may be provided by Coincover in the unlikely event that a problem occurs,” the Ledger website states.

But Recover is not not to everyone’s taste. Since its launch, on social networks, a number of Ledger users have protested, believing that the interest of a non-custodial, autonomous and physical wallet was precisely to not to allow a third party or parties to have access to the private keys.

As Ledger tried to defuse the controversy, tensions rose Wednesday when the company tweeted that it was and had always been “technically possible” to write firmware that facilitates key extraction on its products. The tweet has since been deleted.

What changed in 6 months? @Ledger pic.twitter.com/3EqPSfuvAt

– Zack Voell (@zackvoell) May 18, 2023

Ledger added that its customers have “always trusted” it not to deploy such a program. “It’s important to understand that ultimately any hardware wallet solution that a user chooses to use will always require that person to trust that developer to create and maintain a secure device to store your assets.” stated Ledger, however, has lost the confidence of some investors following the leak of its customer database in 2020.

Yesterday, Ledger’s CTO went over the situation in a lengthy Twitter threadstating that the private keys “never” left the wallet.

“Whenever they are used, your consent is requested. You want to use Ledger Recover, your seed will be split into 3 fragments and encrypted before being stored in fragment backup providers. All wallets need access to your seed/private keys in order to interact with the blockchain protocols. Hardware wallets offer a higher level of security as the keys are not handled in the clear in an unsecured environment,” explained Charles Guillemet.

During a Twitter Space on the subject, the Ledger’s boss Pascal Gauthier spoke up and said that this is the kind of functionality that would allow democratize crypto to the general public.

I’m sorry, but the piece of paper belongs to the past and Ledger Recover to the future,” he proclaimed.

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