Ledger Recover is an ID-based key recovery service that provides a backup for your Secret Recovery Phrase. If you lose or don’t have access to your Secret Recovery Phrase, the service allows you to securely restore your private keys using a Ledger device.
The service is an optional paid subscription available only for Ledger Nano X users. It gives them a way to recover their crypto in case they lose both their device and paper-backup seed phrase.
How it works
When setting up your Ledger Recover login, you’ll first need to verify your identity using your ID card. You’ll be asked to connect your Ledger Nano X and give approval to the creation of the backup to your Secret Recovery Phrase. Once approved, your Ledger Nano X will duplicate, encrypt and fragment your private key into three parts within the Secure Element chip. These fragments become the backup of your Secret Recovery Phrase.
These encrypted fragments are securely sent to three independent providers – Ledger, Coincover, and EscrowTech that will store them in Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). Each encrypted fragment is useless on its own. When you request access to your wallet, two of the three encrypted fragments will be sent back to your Ledger device, reassembling them to build your private key.
Response to Security Concerns
Ledger Nano has always been a leading hardware wallet but since the announcement of this new feature, there have been concerns around the idea of the private key leaving the hardware wallet, leading the new feature release to be temporarily postponed.
Ledger Delays Plans for Private Key Recovery Service Following Controversy
Some pointed out that this is a misunderstanding of how the Ledger Nano works:
In response to the controversy, on June 21st, 2023, Ledger Nano CTO, Charles Guillemet released a tweet and link to the whitepaper for this feature so it can be studied in more detail.
Ledger also mention the following:
In our ongoing effort to build in a transparent and collaborative way, we are publishing the detailed technical White Paper on Ledger Recover, provided by Coincover. This document covers the system design, architecture, and operational flows of Ledger Recover, our advanced solution for backing up and restoring the Ledger device’s Secret Recovery Phrase. As a reminder, Ledger Recover is an entirely optional and opt-in paid subscription service that does not impact the security of your Ledger.
The Whitepaper can be accessed here: https://github.com/LedgerHQ/recover-whitepaper
Further information and FAQs can be found here: https://www.ledger.com/recover
