Ledger, the prominent developer of crypto wallets, is facing controversy, igniting the ire of the crypto community. In response to answering a string of inquiries regarding their new wallet recovery service, Ledger Support missed an opportunity to satisfy users’ concerns and reinforce their commitment to security.
The perplexing tweets released by the company have inadvertently cast doubt on their intentions, leaving customers feeling anxious about the exposure of their funds. In a now-deleted tweet, Ledger had made a statement that indicated that it has always possessed the technical capability to develop firmware that enables the extraction of users’ keys.
This revelation has raised significant concerns within the community, implying that the company could access and control users’ private keys at its discretion. The company stated:
Technically speaking it is and has always been possible to write firmware that facilitates key extraction.
Additionally, the company mentioned:
You have always trusted Ledger not to deploy such firmware whether you knew it or not. It’s important to understand that at the end of the day, any hardware wallet solution a user chooses to go with will always require that person to trust this developer to build and maintain a secure device to store your assets.
The “Recover” Service By Ledger Sparked Outrage
Ledger has introduced a service called “Recover” this week, which has caused outrage within the crypto community. The agitation is because this service went against what Ledger claimed to prioritize: privacy and security.
With the “Recover” service, customers could back up their random word phrases by dividing them into smaller parts and encrypting them. However, people were concerned that this could have exposed their personal information to risks, contradicting Ledger’s main principles.
The seed phrase system poses some notable challenges regarding user experience. If someone loses their seed phrase, they cannot recover their assets. On the other hand, if the phrase ends up in the wrong hands, it can be used to compromise a wallet and restore it if needed.
Ledger claims that this backup solution, such as “Recovery,” is gaining popularity. They acknowledge the inherent risk of assets becoming irrecoverable simply due to the misplacement of a random sequence of words, which can prove problematic for cryptocurrency owners.
Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet took to Twitter to provide clarification and mitigate the impact of the earlier statements following the controversial tweets. Guillemet stated:
Any action that interacts with a user’s keys needs to be approved by the user through their Ledger. We cannot extract their keys, and will not extract keys.
