Hardware wallet firm Ledger will hold off on launching the Recover service and make the code for the update open-source.
In a Twitter space on Tuesday, Ledger addressed users’ concerns over the optional service that would let users recover their private keys by storing encrypted sharded versions of them with three different custodians.
— Ledger (@Ledger) May 23, 2023
Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier also shared an open letter to users on Twitter, saying he was humbled by the reaction of the community. He assured users that the version of the Recover service that will be released will incorporate the feedback received on transparency, censorship resistance and security.
Some of the concerns raised by the community included the ability for governments to access and freeze user funds stored through the Recover service. Ledger co-founder and former CEO Éric Larchevêque confirmed this as a possibility earlier this week, saying that governments could subpoena the third parties that safeguard the encrypted seed phrases.
Gauthier also confirmed the same in a recent episode of What Bitcoin Did.
⚠️ According to Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, the introduction of Ledger Recover would grant authorities the capability to retrieve your #Bitcoin private keys in the event of a legal order.
(Per @WhatBitcoinDid) pic.twitter.com/1G5fY3Vu1B
— BecauseBitcoin.com (@BecauseBitcoin) May 22, 2023
However, after more and more of Ledger’s customer base turned critical, the company has now pledged to make all the core components of its operating system and the Recover service fully open source. Gauthier said the product will not be released until this process is complete.
For censorship resistance, if you’re worried about any kind of unauthorized access to your seed phrase, you can use the passphrase feature that makes it impossible for anyone but you to access your funds, even with the seed phrase. https://t.co/oBwiWasDEa
— Pascal Gauthier @Ledger (@_pgauthier) May 23, 2023
According to Ledger’s open source roadmap, the firm will release a whitepaper of the Recover protocol and educational blog posts explaining the principles and security processes that govern it within the next few days. In the coming weeks, Ledger plans to release tools for users to implement their own sharded backup provider and open source the dashboard that contains the Recover implementation.