The Ledger Confusion: Are Wallets In The Hands of Governments?

Ledger’s co-founder and former CEO stated that governments can confiscate user assets with subpoenas.

The crypto ecosystem, which has been struggling with regulatory turmoil, is embroiled in a new event. Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has launched its Ledger Recover service. This service has received intense backlash from the crypto ecosystem.

Ledger Recover, which backs up the secret recovery statements in crypto wallets, will store these statements by three different parties. This raised privacy and reliability concerns. However, the main confusion was created by statements from the former CEO of Ledger.

Ledger Former CEO: Governments Can Access Wallets

Éric Larchevêque, co-founder and former CEO of Ledger, responds to user criticism on Reddit. However, the former CEO continues to fuel criticism with his statements.

Earlier, Larchevêque had said that the criticisms directed at Ledger were due to a PR error and the company’s failure to promote its service. Stating that Ledger should gain the trust of the user, Larchevêque argued that Ledger Recover was not developed for malicious purposes. However, the former CEO stated that this service has been misrepresented.

Ledger Recover offers an innovative service that does not require mandatory use. This service allows users to back up their privacy statements on initial registration and store them with third parties. Larchevêque claimed that this incident was not a back door and did not have an unreliable aspect.

At the same time, Larchevêque broke the pot on Reddit. Larchevêque also said that thanks to Recover, governments can access user assets with a subpoena. This rhetoric from the former CEO has been heavily criticized by the crypto ecosystem.

Ledger Recover’s exposure to criticism also revealed that crypto hardware wallets’ codes should be clearly presented. In addition, GridPlus introduced its new open source hardware wallet amid the criticism.