Ledger CEO Evades Answer About Potential Subpoena Response

During an AMA on Twitter spaces the other day, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier was pressed on whether or not they would respond to subpoena regarding customer KYC information.

He brought up the story of when Apple refused to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter. When asked if Ledger would do they same, he claimed that he was being asked “impossible questions” and essentially evaded the question altogether.

“We will always be on the side of our customers, but also you are asking me an impossible question to answer. Which in ever scenario, all the time, everywhere, I don’t know”

This obviously raises some serious concerns. Regardless of whether or not assets can be seized, Ledger will now have KYC access to customers who opt into the Recover service. And while it is easy to say, “Simply do not opt in”, the fact that this is even now an issue is concerning to say the least.

You can listen to the entire Twitter Spaces AMA here.

https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1YpKkgvBqvjKj

And this specific part starts at 1:11:48

They also committed to accelerating their open source roadmap.

“So, we have made the decision to accelerate the open sourcing roadmap! We will include as much of the Ledger operating system as possible, starting with core components of the OS, and Ledger Recover, which won't be released until this work is complete. Furthermore, we will open source the Ledger Recover protocol, enabling the community to have as much choice as possible over your self-custody, in addition to the service being fully optional. This roadmap will be shared and updated by our CTO and engineering team.”

What do you think? Can Ledger simply not be trusted now? Or with the right steps and solutions, such as open sourcing their software, they will be able to gain back this lost trust?