The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service - Ep. 494
Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices Head of Content “Seth For Privacy.” He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream adoption.
May 19, 2023
40 min
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Episode 494 · May 19, 2023
The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service - Ep. 494
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The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service - Ep. 494
Summary
Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices Head of Content “Seth For Privacy.” He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream adoption.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights:
how Ledger Recover works and why it caused an outrage in the crypto community
why the fact that Ledger’s code is not open-source could be considered a problem
what the concerns are about handing over additional data to Ledger
how darknet markets have always existed for fake ID verifications and how it relates to Ledger’s new feature
some of Ledger’s previous security lapses
why introducing a trusted third party undermines one of Bitcoin’s most central tenets
whether Ledger’s move is a “net good for society,” and whether people actually want a service like this in a hardware wallet
whether something will go wrong with Ledger in the future
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Railgun DAO
Stader Labs
Guest
Seth for Privacy, blogger and head of content at Foundation Devices
Blog
Foundation Devices
Twitter thread on the logistics and risks of the Ledger recovery process
Links
Ledger CTO Twitter thread on Ledger Recover
CoinDesk: Ledger Bats Back Criticism of New Wallet Recovery Service, CoinDesk
Unchained: ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users
Ledger Recover webpage
Haseeb Qureshi’s thread on the Ledger controversy
Past Ledger security issues
CoinDesk: Crypto Wallet Maker Ledger Loses 1M Email Addresses in Data Theft
Cointelegraph: Ledger data leak: A ‘simple mistake’ exposed 270K crypto wallet buyers
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