I guess they have released this info on the wrong day... This should have been released on april 1st, since it has to be an april fool's joke.
If this is true, i'll never point people towards ledger hardware ever again... FFS, if this is true, they're completely demolishing everything a hardware wallet stands for...

What a piece of shit they are!
Just when I thought ledger can't get any worse... they release this ''revolutionary'' stupid idea  
Let me guess what happened here, someone with big capital invested a bunch of money in one of their several seed round funding (last one was in 2022 I think), and now those investors want to profit and get money back with this ''deal''.
Everything around ledger is closed source, but they ask us to believe them that everything will be safu encrypted and sent for safu keeping, they can't be serious...
€50,000 ($55,000) is covered and safu says the people from ledger, oh c'mon man, give me a break!

It's finally time to stop using ledger and switch to other open source alternatives, maybe even making your own DIY device or getting back to old laptop/phone as a cold storage.

PS
Just reading all the ledger reddit and twitter posts now... and oh boy customers are pissed, confused and very angry about this ''news''!  

This is so bad that i might give them negative feedback if they have account on this forum. And considering this "feature" require ID verification where Ledger already leak user data in past, it feels like disaster waiting to happen. By disaster, i mean your legal document will be leaked and misused by criminal to perform identity theft.

I do not know why some people like telling people that Ledger Nano wallets are good, they should not have been trusted from the first day they created wallets in the past, because all their wallets are having close source secure elements. If you can not verify, why trust the company when there are some alternatives that everything about their wallet makeup are open source.

Another thing is that Ledger proved themselves not to care about their customers personal information. This two are enough not to use Ledger wallet again. I use to tell people to use the wallet before, but as I found about the wallet more on this forum, I know it is one of the wallets that I can not point people to again to use.

What I saw today is not surprising me, Ledger do not care before about how bitcoin should be, as it should be of no trust. Not taking care of users data and now they have promoted to a level where privacy will be no more. People should avoid Ledger wallets.

While these particular release notes do not appear on Ledger website, you can find them in Ledger Servers API[1] and, most importantly,u/btchip - Ledger Co-Funder - has already admitted that this will indeed happen[2] setting a dangerous attack vector as o_e_l_e_o previously explained about:
I wonder until how long will someone find an exploit to this "encrypted backup export system"? If this doesn't spell the depreciation of Ledger as a company, for sure that event will.

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[1]https://manager.api.live.ledger.com/api/firmware_osu_versions
[2]https://safereddit.com/r/ledgerwallet/comments/13itm7u/is_there_a_backdoor_yes_or_no/jkbyyfp/

This is a paid feature so it's not sending your seed phrase anywhere unless you pay $9.99 per month for it (which is a dumb subscription).

Pf.... that's relieving. Why did they expose themselves like that ?
So it's that subscription that is exposing the keys ? You subscribe there in order to backup your keys? I rather save them in my place to be honest and noone has access in them. As long as i dont buy this sub i'm fine right ?

I haven't read anything this stupid since Square's concept of shared self-custody. But Ledger was faster and actually worked on developing and releasing this bullshit before Square. They really will use any opportunity to try and profit, no matter what. If this turns out to be a success, this generation doesn't deserve Bitcoin.

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All correct except the last part. To become part of their revolutionary seed sharing solution, you have to subscribe to it somewhere, give your consent, and agree to pay those $9.99 per month. So, you don't have to use it. It's just an idiotic option they give you. I wonder why the Nano S Plus isn't mentioned? Maybe we can expect that in the release notes for the new S Plus firmware.   

All secure elements are closed-source. Trezor and Tropic Square are the first ones that began experimenting with an almost 100% open-source secure element chip. 

I guess you are talking about Foundation Passport. Foundation is relatively new in this business, so you couldn't have recommended them 5 years ago, at a time while Trezor and Ledger were the best, because they weren't around at that time. Second thing, does Foundation use an open-source secure element? If Trezor is the first one that's planning to develop one, it means Foundation doesn't have one either.   

Yes. if approve it and pay the monthly fees.

No, you subscribe there for them to back up 2 out of 3 shards of your recovery phrase. If you lose your own, the 2 shards stored by 3rd-parties are supposed to allow you to backup your wallet.

I agree with your point. Currently storing your bitcoins in a seed plate or an air-gapped device that you personally own is the best and most secure option.

Trust in hardware wallets has become a concern after this, so it's better to keep peace in your mind and use something that you own to store your BTC.

Indeed, with a simple firmware update the Ledger Nano seems to function more like a hot wallet rather than a hardware wallet that keeps your private keys offline. This shift essentially turns it into a free hot wallet, which is scary since it involves transmitting your seed phrase and wallet information to third-party entities.

I wonder what they're thinking about when they're doing this?

I'm still pretty skeptical about all this. Has Ledger put out any official statement or something that says the seed phrase won't be sent anywhere unless we subscribe to their monthly plan? However, even if such confirmation exists, we should still question whether we have any means of independently verifying this claim or if we're simply relying on their word. The mere possibility of the seed phrase leaving the hardware device and potentially being accessible online, in any form, undermines the fundamental purpose of a hardware wallet, which is to serve as the sole custodian of our private keys.


From what I understand, all three shards are being backed up by either Ledger or third-party custodians. It might not seem like a huge difference, but it does make the whole process a bit less secure. With three pieces of information "out there", if someone gets their hands on just two of them, they could access your coins.