Leading hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has acknowledged concerns over its newly announced service, Ledger Recover, and vowed to increase transparency and accelerate its open source roadmap.
The service, designed to help users recover their private keys, sparked backlash due to fears surrounding the safeguarding of users’ private keys against potential government subpoenas.
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In a blog post, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier apologized for the communication mishap and reiterated the company’s commitment to security, emphasizing that Ledger never compromises on this aspect. He also highlighted the need for a service like Ledger Recover, as seed phrase recovery remains a significant pain point for crypto self-custody adoption.
To address concerns, Gauthier announced the acceleration of the open sourcing roadmap, with plans to include as much of the Ledger operating system as possible, starting with core components of the OS and Ledger Recover.
The protocol will be open sourced to provide the community with more choices for self-custody, while keeping the service fully optional.
Gauthier stressed that although open source is not necessarily a security feature, it does promote transparency, allowing developers and security experts to review the code for malicious elements.
Currently, all 150 Ledger Nano applications, Ledger Live, and a portion of the operating system are open source.
For users seeking additional security, Gauthier recommended enabling the passphrase feature, which is not included in Ledger Recover and can serve as a fully trustless option.
As Ledger strives to make crypto secure and easy to use, the company remains committed to listening to customer feedback and improving its offerings.