Ledger Recover Delayed Until Open Sourcing Is Available

Ledger will prioritize the release of the Ledger Recover white paper

article-image

Maurice NORBERT/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Ledger will delay the release of its Recover service after backlash on social media. 

In an open letter, Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, said that the company had made an “unintentional communication mistake” which hindered consumers from “accurately” understanding Recover. 

“We believe wholeheartedly in the need for a service like Ledger Recover—those of us who have been in the space for a long time, over a decade in my case, have a responsibility to ensure everyone can be self-sovereign and can have self-custody over their digital value,” Gauthier said

In a tweet, Ledger’s Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet said that the company will release the white paper for Ledger Recover, and will then give consumers the option to implement their own shard backup providers. This will all be done under an open-source implementation. 

Ledger won’t release Recover until the open sourcing is complete. 

Loading Tweet..

The Ledger team says that the priority of the open source project will be Ledger Recover, “to make it fully auditable.”

The company hosted a town hall with executives on Twitter Spaces to address customer questions and concerns as well as give more clarity on what’s next for Ledger Recover.

“We’ll start with open sourcing the white paper of Recover,” Guillemet said on Twitter Spaces. “It will also allow developers to build their own shard backup provider so you can use the Recover service as it’s offered by Ledger, but if you want to build the backup on your own, this will be possible.”

When Ledger initially announced Ledger Recover, industry participants – such as Polygon Labs’ Chief Information Security Officer Mudit Gupta – warned that Recover could be a “horrendous idea.”

There was also confusion as to whether or not the Recover service could accidentally give hackers access, though Guillemet said that “there is no backdoor for anyone, neither us, a provider or even a very gifted hacker to access it.”

The service was designed to be an “optional subscription for users who want a backup of their Secret Recovery Phrase. You don’t have to use it, and can continue managing your recovery phrase yourself if that’s why you bought a Ledger.”

Updated May 23, 2023 at 1:04 pm ET: Added addition context regarding Ledger’s Twitter Spaces.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”

article-image

Executives weigh the growth potential they see in the public stock and private credit/equities arenas

article-image

Players can stake ME, trade tokens and link wallets to climb the leaderboard