Ledger has announced a physical key for quickly restoring access to your crypto wallet.
Hardware crypto wallet manufacturer Ledger has announced Recovery Key, an additional physical key that allows users to restore access to Stax and Flex wallets, according to The Block. To restore access, users simply need to hold the key next to the device and enter their PIN code. The connection is made via a secure NFC channel.
The Recovery Key can be used as an alternative or addition to the standard 24-word seed phrase. The key can only be activated with confirmation on the main device. It works completely offline and does not transmit data to third parties.
“We offer users a choice while maintaining security and control,” said Ledger's Director of Customer Experience, Ian Rogers, adding that many people still store their assets on exchanges and in unreliable software wallets.
The device's source code and technical specifications are already available. Sales will begin shortly. Recovery Key is an optional tool. It can be used in conjunction with the paid Ledger Recover service, which has previously been heavily criticized for storing encrypted fragments of the seed phrase in third-party storage.
Ledger Recover is a service for recovering private keys by dividing the wallet's secret phrase (seed phrase) into three parts and transferring them to Ledger's partner companies for storage. Announced in 2023, the Recovery Key service initially drew a barrage of criticism from Ledger users.
Although its connection is voluntary, customers were outraged by the very idea that wallet keys could be disclosed to anyone other than their owners. Such a scenario in itself contradicts the idea of “cold” storage, and Ledger devices have always been promoted by the company as the most suitable for this purpose. The company even decided to suspend the product for a while.
At the time, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier also acknowledged that authorities could obtain access to the private keys of users of the service through the courts. In response to the criticism, it was decided to disclose the source code and technical documentation of the service so that the community could independently study how it works.