Ledger Face Public Relations Mess as the Company Say Private Key can Leave the Device

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger faced a PR crisis as it sought to clarify the security features of its new Recover product. The company deleted a tweet that said the wallet's firmware "facilitates key extraction" after it was perceived as contradictory to the purpose of a hard wallet.

That statement caused a sharp reaction among hardcore users, so the company later added a second tweet. The support account said it did so because "we don't want people to continue to be confused by this, and are replacing it with Tweet threads which address all frequently asked questions and concerns in the most understandable and accurate way possible."

Ledger's CTO Charles Guillemet explained that the Recover product allows users to grant the software access to encrypted "shards" of private keys, which can then be recombined to recreate the seed phrase. The feature is designed for users who desire more security than online exchanges and wallets offer but are not yet ready for a fully offline cold wallet.