Ledger got in a bit of heat a few months ago when they released a new password aka wallet keys backup solution. The solution stored users keys on various systems that were controlled by larger corporation and while it might have been in good faith it became clear that it was a huge violation on what hardware wallets stood for.

Normally the reason someone gets a hardware wallet is for cold storage or more security. It allows easier access to your funds yourself but the keys are never released online so you're the only person that's ever seen them or has any type of trace to it all.

However the security error there is yourself. If you lose your keys you pretty much lost everything in the wallet and are not getting it back.

By having these keys and backups on 3rd party systems which Ledger still does to this day ultimately means you are at risk to having your crypto attack by the government. If they need to withhold funds or any number of other things then they have direct access now to your crypto wallet via ledger.

Fast Forward

Fast forward to a week ago and Paypal released their own stable coin. I wrote about there here in this post CBDCs or Everyones Business Getting In and also a follow up to that on Paypals new Hub just the other day here Paypal is doubling down on crypto we can see the clear path that Paypal is now on. A failing company that used to attack crypto is now trying to embrace it to bring back business.

Perhaps this is exactly the same moves as Ledger. Ledger was once the number one hardware wallet to get. However other more robust systems and wallets came to be such as keepkey, Ellipal and many others.

We just got work that Ledger has teamed up with Paypal as one of the first solutions to allow users to buy crypto from within the app using Paypal.

Ledger launched Ledger live some time ago and I have to say the last time I attempted to use this platform it was a disaster. However it looks like this is the way Ledger is going and instead of being a hardware wallet it's now targeting being a trading platform.

These changes by ledger seem more like a desperate attempt to buddy up with large institutions and less and less about the security of their hardware wallets and users.

In a statement by Ledger...

“We’re combining the uncompromising security of Ledger with PayPal's leadership in protected payments technology to help facilitate a seamless platform for user crypto transactions. Ledger is committed to simplifying the world of crypto and PayPal is committed to making the movement of money as simple, reliable and affordable as possible.”

However there's a lot to unpack there such as uncompromising security and paypals leadership. Two things which I think many can agree on are false flags.

The Future

I think one thing that might get me excited is what X (Twitter) has planned for their payment solution and how much it will incorporate this payment system with cryptocurrency.

Will we see twitter become more of a hub for all things such as wallets, crypto etc. I have to say the security on Twitter accounts isn't top notch by any means and I'd rather see more attention on that then anything else before rolling out payments and crypto solutions.

It also feels like one of those things where tech races forward almost blindly and leaves security behind or a thing to think about later. We constantly see this in the crypto fields where defi it was a dog eat dog world and innovation kept happening but security became less and less of a thing until recently.

Overall it seems like we are seeing a shift where companies are starting to buddy up a lot more to large institutions and care less and less about security and anonymity.