Ledger co-founder addresses ‘Recover’ concerns, says wallet is secure

Éric Larchevêque, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Ledger, a hardware wallet manufacturer, has spoken out in reaction to the cryptocurrency community’s widespread criticism of the release of Ledger Recover.

Ledger is not flawed despite criticism

Ledger Recover allows users of Ledger’s hardware wallet to back up their secret recovery phrases. 

Larchevêque acknowledged that Ledger may have bungled its public relations but stressed that the issues weren’t due to technological flaws.

On Reddit, Larchevêque addressed mounting concerns, adding that Ledger was never meant to be a trustless solution. He said users should trust the hardware provider because “if you don’t trust Ledger, meaning you treat your hardware manufacturer as an adversary, that can’t work at all.” He further broke down Ledger’s security paradigm, confirming that the recent upgrade did not alter it.

The Ledger co-founder also acknowledged that, as CEO, he may not have done an excellent job of conveying the security approach to customers. Nonetheless, he stressed that Ledger’s security and the lack of a backdoor are unaltered, whereas people’s worries evolve with time. He also emphasized that nobody is obliged to utilize the Ledger Recover function.

Larchevêque parallels signing a transaction with Ledger and trusting the corporation to share the seed phrase. In response to a user’s proposal that there be two distinct firmware versions to deal with backdoor concerns, the ex-CEO said it wouldn’t help.

Ledger Recover upgrade explained

The Ledger Recover firmware upgrade is available as an over-the-air download. Once installed, it enables customers to enroll in a service where their seed phrases are backed up and encrypted by three independent parties. If a user forgets their recovery phrase, they may retrieve it using this function.

Users who had grown to depend on Ledger as a trustless option to secure their cryptocurrency were understandably concerned about the prospect of the seed phrase leaving the hardware wallet.

Nano S, Ledger’s cheapest hardware wallet, cannot upgrade to utilize the Ledger Recover feature owing to its chipset’s memory constraints.