- Ledger has delayed the launch of Ledger Recover following community backlash
- Crypto users were worried about their device seed phrases being stored with third parties
- Ledger will open source all its code so that users can see for themselves what’s involved
Ledger has postponed the launch of its Ledger Recover service following backlash from the community. The company said it will delay the launch of the service, which allows users to store their Ledger seed phrase with secured third parties, while it works to make its software more transparent to show that it isn’t hiding any secrets with regards to what it can do with user seeds. CEO Pascal Gauthier acknowledged that the company had made a “communication mistake” with how it launched Ledger Recover, and promised that the company had learned from its mistakes. Again.
Cocktail of Confusion
The launch of Ledger Recover has been nothing short of disastrous and has seen truths mixing with exaggerations and outright lies to produce a cocktail of confusion and worry for existing Ledger users. Some feared that the service was mandatory and destroyed their devices, while the realization that governments could seize wallet contents by subpoenaing the companies that held a share of the wallet seed key also caused consternation.
Gauthier penned a blog post yesterday which sought to put these concerns to rest and state how Ledger planned to move forward following the PR cockup. Gauthier acknowledged that Ledger’s “unintentional communication mistake took everyone by surprise and affected our customer’s ability to accurately understand Ledger Recover”, but doubled down on the concept of third-party seed storage.
I want to address the feedback over Ledger Recover, the way it was communicated, and share our path forward. Read my letter and join our town hall with our leadership team to learn more.
🧵👉 https://t.co/2hlPrMwzaN pic.twitter.com/juVBOpWeeG
— Pascal Gauthier @Ledger (@_pgauthier) May 23, 2023
In order to increase trust, Gauthier said that Ledger has decided to “accelerate the open sourcing roadmap” it currently has, allowing anyone to peek at its code and ensure that there are no nasty surprises in there that could compromise user funds. As a result of this open source acceleration, Ledger Recover will not launch until the code is publicly auditable and people can see for themselves exactly what Ledger plans to do with their crypto.
