The Departure of Ledger’s Co-Founder Bacca
Following the recent scandal involving Ledger’s Recover feature, Nicolas Bacca, the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Ledger, has announced his departure from the company. Bacca’s decision comes after the previous departure of Eric Larchevêque, the former CEO and co-founder, in 2019.
A close friend of Bacca revealed that he plans to embark on a new project aimed at attracting more users to the world of cryptocurrency. While Ledger served as a valuable starting point for promoting self-custody, Bacca believes there is much more that can be done.
Bacca’s Career and Advancing Self-Custody
Prior to his role as chief innovation officer, Bacca held the position of chief technology officer at Ledger. During his tenure, the company successfully developed and sold $6 million worth of its renowned Nano wallets.
If you are interested in maintaining control over your own cryptocurrency, we invite you to read our comparison of Ledger and Trezor wallets.
Although Bacca has not publicly disclosed his next venture, his LinkedIn profile indicates his involvement with Ubinity, a company specializing in secure modules for smart cards. He also co-founded BTChip, which played a crucial role in developing Ledger’s first version of an open-source secure element hardware wallet.
Considering Ledger’s recent efforts to enhance the user-friendliness of their wallets through the controversial recovery feature, it is likely that Bacca will leverage his experience to create a product that further simplifies secure access to cryptocurrencies. Additionally, he may collaborate on projects with companies in which he has invested, such as Bitstack, a Bitcoin neobank, Morpho, a DeFi peer-to-peer lending service, and MetaFight, a Mixed Martial Arts NFT video game.
The Balancing Act Between Usability and Self-Sovereignty
During Bacca’s time at Ledger, the company introduced a subscription service that allowed users to recover a seed phrase, a set of 24 words used to restore access to cryptocurrency keys. This move received criticism from crypto enthusiasts who believed it contradicted the principles of self-sovereignty and accused Ledger of prioritizing aesthetics and business over the core values of cryptocurrency.
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In response to the backlash, Ledger’s CEO Pascal Gauthier pledged to open-source more of the company’s code. He acknowledged that the criticism stemmed from unintentional miscommunication and emphasized the importance of key recovery in onboarding users who find key management challenging.
Ledger wallets securely store cryptocurrency keys on a physical device that can be disconnected from the internet to safeguard funds. To conduct blockchain transactions, users need to connect the wallet to their computer.
Hot Take:
As Nicolas Bacca departs from Ledger, his career trajectory suggests a future dedicated to advancing self-custody in the realm of cryptocurrency. While Ledger has faced scrutiny for its attempt to balance usability and self-sovereignty, Bacca’s expertise and experiences may pave the way for innovative solutions that simplify secure access to cryptocurrencies without compromising the principles they were built upon.
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