Journalist
Sead Fadilpašić
Journalist
Sead Fadilpašić
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Major crypto wallet maker Ledger has announced that its latest product, Ledger Recovery Key, is “coming soon.”
According to the press release, this is a spare key for Ledger Flex and Ledger Stax wallets. It’s designed to make recovering access to assets simple, the team says.
Users will be able to create an offline spare key alongside their 24 words, as well as the PIN code for it. The key connects directly to the Ledger device via NFC communication, with no intermediary. To recover access, they will tap the card and enter the PIN.
“There is no limit to the number of spare keys that can be created,” the announcement says. “Creating a spare key is always optional, and can only be created by you with confirmation on your Ledger.”
Moreover, the novel product features a Secure Element at its core, the technology behind Ledger’s security.
Also, anyone can review the Ledger Recovery Key code. A whitepaper will be available upon launch, while info is available on the Ledger GitHub.
Charles Guillemet, Chief Technology Officer at Ledger, says that Ledger Recovery Key “has gone through extensive security testing internally at the hands of the Donjon,” the company’s team of white hat hackers. He claims that it also underwent “a comprehensive internal testing and external security audits,” receiving “extremely positive feedback from security researchers and industry leaders.”
Meanwhile, the Ledger Recover service and the physical Recovery Key are “complementary.” The users can use one, both, or just the 24 words.
The team will launch the new product “in the near future,” the team says.
Ledger Recovery Key: Copy of ‘Master Secret’
Per the whitepaper shared with Cryptonews, Ledger Recovery Key is not a hardware wallet. It’s not a tool to manage assets or sign transactions.
Instead, the team explains, it’s a smart card that stores a copy of the “master secret” – from which stems the Secret Recovery Phrase – from the Ledger wallet. The only condition is that the wallet supports the NFC protocol, as this is how the key and the wallet communicate.
Meanwhile, Ledger launched its touchscreen Ledger Stax and Ledger Flex in 2024. The announcement says that these devices have “contributed to a new sales milestone of over 7.5 million Ledger devices sold worldwide.”
However, the team argues that traditional backup methods are becoming less practical with time. In response, they launched Ledger Recover in 2023 as an optional paid service. It allows users to create encrypted fragments of their recovery phrase. “Since launching, Ledger Recover adoption has been strong, showing a clear demand for more recovery options,” it argues.
Therefore, Ledger Recovery Key is another option in the recovery suite. All these features remain optional. Ledger provides the “fullest set of choices around recovery,” says Ian Rogers, Chief Experience Officer at Ledger. “With Ledger Recovery Key, we are making secure self-custody easy-to-use for everyone.”
