Ledger Introduces New Service, Sparks Debate

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and let's stretch those Web3 muscles.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🔒Ledger Debate
• 🧋Wednesday Bubbles
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

LEDGER INTRODUCES A NEW SERVICE

Ledger, the most popular cold wallet producer, has drawn some attention to themselves.

Reason for that is the fact that Ledger has introduced a new service.

And not everyone's convinced whether this novelty is a good idea.

So, Ledger has launched something that's called "Ledger Recover." 

It's a service that lets you recover your Ledger's private key, in case you lost it.

This is an opt-in service and it would cost you $10/month.

Those who decide to go for it, will have to go through the whole KYC (know your customer) bureaucracy.

Well, sounds like an optional service that offers something really valuable to those who may have a tendency to lose their house keys, private keys, wallets, or crypto wallets.

Riiiight?..

Well, not to everyone.

Not surprisingly, the introduction of it sparked significant controversy within the crypto community.

Many even got so agitated that they expressed their refusal to use Ledger products in the future.

What's the big deal, you may ask?

This service goes against beliefs, that are held my many, within the crypto sphere.

According to them, the whole idea of a hardware wallet is to be able to keep the private keys completely offline.

But Ledger is aware of this. Therefore, the service is optional. You see, if crypto is about to proceed with the global adoption...

The user demographics will become way more different than they are today.

Ledger's rationale behind launching Ledger Recover was articulated as a "product for future customers."

This translates to the fact, that less tech-savvy people are about to engage with crypto.

And if they were to forget, or lose, their private keys... That would be a sad life lesson waiting to happen.

Because this happens. All the time.

In 2022, it is estimated that around $545 million worth of Bitcoin was lost due to forgotten passwords or an error with the recovery phrase.

This kinda... Indicates that this is a real problem.

Ledger customers are aware of this situation. Therefore some of them came up with a suggestion.

According to them, Ledger should launch a separate device for this!

Without the need to update the already-existing hardware on the products that are being currently produced.

Nonetheless, Ledger acknowledges the presence of an additional attack vector if one chooses to opt into Ledger Recover, primarily due to including a KYC component.

It is important to note that the security standards of the hardware wallet itself remain uncompromized, and Ledger continues reigning as the secure, and reliable option when it comes to crypto wallets.

So, the situation is unfolding. Such novelties do kindle new discussions which, potentially, will lead to new solutions to old problems.

TL;DR: Ledger, the crypto wallet producer, has introduced a new service that's called "Ledger Recover." For $10/month, it allows users to recover their private keys in case they'd forget it.

WEDNESDAY BUBBLES

It's bubbling time.

LTC: you could have guessed it, right? The obvious boost happened due to the issuance of LTC-20 tokens (it really caused records in daily transactions, more than 500,000 in a day!) while, before, the number averaged at around 100k.

But, not only that.

Litecoin Halving is approaching!

LDO: It's all about withdrawals.

The largest staking protocol on the Ethereum network now allows for ETH withdrawals. This decision was made through a community vote.

Lido announced that Lido V2 will start operating after the voting results come into effect, unlocking direct withdrawal from the stETH:ETH pair in the protocol, ~270K ETH in storage, will be available.

This will facilitate initial withdrawal requests without the lengthy validator exit process.

As of today, there are 6,274,000 ETH being staked in LIDO (about $11-12 billion, depending on price fluctuations).

Also, there are some whale news in connection to LDO.

In the past week, 3 whales accumulated LDO:

-0x9EA7 withdrew 724,822 LDO ($1.52M) from Binance at a price of $2.01 per coin. -0x4E4e withdrew 655,641 LDO ($1.38M) from Binance at a price of $1.83 per coin. -0x9eda bought 570,883 LDO with 974K USDC at a price of $1.71 per coin.

And there's more to LDO success. It's one of the coins that are about to benefit from the rapidly-evolving restaking technology. But what is it?

Restaking is an evolution of liquid staking and an expansion of its capabilities.

Here's how it works:

"Liquid staking" means staking of ETH through pools.

Restaking is the repeated staking of an already staked asset.

For example, a user stakes ETH through Lido, receives stETH, and then restakes stETH.

But... Why is restaking needed?

For users, it's simply a way to earn additional income, but for developers, it's nothing less than a revolution.

The main goal of restaking is to use ETH to secure other networks.

That is, through restaking, people can stake their ETH not only in the Ethereum network but also in other Ethereum networks or protocols.

One could say that ETH will become a reserve "currency" for other blockchains, significantly enhancing their security.

This is beneficial to all parties:

• Developers of a new network can rent "security" from Ethereum.
• Stakers get additional profit from restaking.
• The Ethereum ecosystem and value grow.

Right now, the protocol EigenLayer, which we described two weeks ago, is actively developing the concept of restaking.

So, don't be mistaken, the future is restaking.

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council Gives the Green Light to MiCA. A collective nod to the long-awaited Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.
• Ripple Scores Legal Victory Against SEC's Attempt to Conceal Documents. The judge denied the SEC's request to seal records of the institution's internal discussions.
• FDIC Chair Claims Signature Bank Failed to Evaluate Risks Linked to Crypto. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair thinks crypto had a part to play.