Name: Balancing the Ledger: Ledger President Pascal Gauthier
Uploaded: 2018-11-30
Duration: 10 min 16 s
Description: Ledger has sold 1.4 million Nano S hardware wallets. President Pascal Gauthier stops by Balancing the Ledger with some product updates.

[ MUSIC ] Welcome to Balancing the Ledger, where tech and finance intersect. I'm Jen Wieczner and today we're joined by Pascal Gauthier, the president of Ledger. Thank you so much for being here, Pascal. Pleasure to be here. So explain exactly what a hardware wallet is and what Ledger does. Sure, A way to simplify this is the hardware what it is a way to protect your private keys. And at Ledger what we do we secure end points. So the blockchain by definition is secured but it's when you go in and out of the blockchain that there is a vector of attack where people can extract your private keys and steal your coins from you. So that's what we do on Ledger. We do this for individuals and that's the ledger Nino s. The hardware wallet pocket that you just described. We do this for enterprises. There's the ledger vault, this is the new B2B Business unit that we're taking to market now, and we've launched our US office this week, with Demetrios as our global head of vaults, based out of New York. And finally, we do this for machines, because we have a third business division that is gonna take care of IoT. Because whether it's humans, enterprises, machines, we all have secrets that we need to protect, and Ledger is here to help. Can you explain a little just how you get your cryptocurrency on the Ledger wallet? Yes. Two things that you need to set up. You need to set up the hardware, and you need to set up the software that sits on your computer. Once this is done you can start to transfer your coins onto your Ledger. Meaning that it's just a simple send. It works like any other wallet that you can find. Even software wallet that you can find to send bit coins. And if your bit coins are in exchange or if your bit coins are in coin base you just copy paste the address of your ledger to send you coins from coin base to your ledger. The important thing is. What you see is what you sign. The screen of your hardware wallet is protected by security and so what you see on the screen of your hardware wallet is actually the truth. You should never trust what you see on your computer, okay. Because you computer can be hacked. And people can show you something on your computer that is actually different from reality. So before signing any transaction, you always make sure that what's on your device is actually what you see on your computer. And if it's different, you stop the transaction. Yeah, and then you want to keep something on paper in a safe place to In case anything happens. Correct, so you choose a pin for your hardware device. However, there is a backup password, it's the 24 words. Every decentralized service has the same type of technology. And those 24 keyword password, then you put it in a safe somewhere. We're right now in what some people are calling Crypto winter Bitcoin is down about 80 percent from its highs of 20, 000 and I think 30 % just this month alone are people still trying to steal the stuff. Do you need a secure wallet? Yeah, I think more than ever. I think the the market realizes that we've shifted from a market where security was ticket for ticket from granted to a market where security needs to be at the core of, It's what everyone is thinking about which has not been the case in the first years of this revolution. But now, more and more, and especially with big institutions coming into the game, people realize the importance of security and big institutions can not compromise their brand. They cannot compromise the trust that investors have in them with poor security so more and more security is at the heart of Every new project that is actually being developed in this market. Yeah, so it's holiday season now but are people still buying the Ledger Nano S even with crypto prices coming down where they are? Yes, they are. So it was very interesting because holiday season start with Black Friday sort of. And for us, it was an interesting point of comparison 2018 Black Friday compared to 2017 and I'm sort of happy to report that Black Friday 18 was almost on par with Black Friday 17 where Black Friday 17 was Burnett's, you know Bitcoin was shooting up in the market was vibrant and in the bearish market of 2018 cells are very strong. So to your question earlier people care, you know more and more but their security Yeah, so you already support more than 700 different cryptocurrencies with the wallet, and you just added Monero. Why did it take so long for Monero? Yes, because not every cryptocurrency is the same, and Monero is a completely new protocol. And so therefore, in terms of develop time, it just Takes longer to integrate a protocol that is completely new than to, say, integrate a protocol that is a fork of a non protocol. But here we are and Monero has been integrating to Ledger live. Actually Monero is already integrated into the firmware but we've also integrated it in our Up where you can actually see your coin, use your coin, etc ., etc. So it's a very exciting development for the community, and we're happy to support Monero. But also what I can add is, the reason why we have so many coins is because our platform is open. So the security secured it closed, but the rest of the platform is open, meaning that third party companies can actually develop their own app. And most of the apps that have been developed recently have actually been developed by a third party developers, so not [ UNKNOWN ]. But at Ledger then what we do is we authenticate the app and we validate the app and we can put it in the store so you can be used you just launched The Ledger vault in May. I believe you know, who are the kinds of clients that you know that are using this and why did you decide to launch that product? Mm- hm, so look, every client that needs governance on top of coins. If you have a bunch of coins and several people needed to access those coins, you need to know what are the rules of engagement, like who can do what, who can spend, who can trigger a wire transfer. And Very easily, like hedge funds, family offices, institutions, and law enforcement agencies, for example. Even law enforcement agencies, what are they doing with the wallets? Law enforcement agencies, they do their jobs, and right now, crypto, just like cash, is being used to do illegal transactions, and so When they seize the Bitcoins and the crypto, they have to put it somewhere. And so, this is why sometimes they put it on the ledger in NOS. And this is why also we're having discussions through some of these law enforcement agencies, everywhere in the world, by the way. To use our solution as a vault just to put the coins that they seize. << Wow, so some of this actually ledgers that they've actually confiscated from bad guys and then some they are actually using to store what they've confiscated. << Yes. << So the law enforcement that's actually sitting on. Substantial amount of crypto currency right now. Yes and they have. If you remember when there was the silk road incidence. I think that the coins that were seized by the FBI, were then auctioned a few months after. So actually law enforcement agencies have been doing this for quite some time now. There's been a lot of speculation about a Bitcoin exchange traded fund or ETF and there are a lot of people saying that we might see that this year. Doesn't look like that's going to happen because of the SEC. What do you think of that? Is that something that could eventually happen in the US, a Bitcoin ETF? Eventually, but I think the FCC comment is fair. They say that, if I understood well what they say, they say that the security is not good enough to make sure that the ETF runs properly, and we believe that's the case, we agree. I think people and companies have to pay more attention to security. And build on top of great technologies, technology that been designed for security, specifically for this environment and for this protocols. So I think we agree with the FCC. but we're here to help. Yeah, well, so the security is not good enough, but you think with Ledger maybe it could be? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Ledger has a very interesting approach to security. Of course I would say that, but yeah we're leveraging technology that has been existing already in the banking industry and in the telecommunication industry. The technology that we have is not completely new, it's actually quite old. Except that we adapted this technology now to this new asset class. Yeah. And so it's always a combination of hardware and software, we use bad words like Secure Element, Hardware Security Models and with our own proprietary operating system that is sort of, hardware agnostic, and the combination of hardware and software Is the best way to secure those assets right now. So does the technology exist to provide the sufficient security for a BitCoin ATF in the future? Yes, and now it's just a matter of deployment. So we're ready to help. Like whoever wants to build an ATF can call us for their security. Yeah, I just wanted to ask you because you're in New York this week, I think partially for Consensus Invest which is one of the big cryptocurrency conferences of the year. What was the mood like there given where prices have fallen recently? I think the mood always follow the price. When the price is high, the mood is high, and when the price is low, the mood is low. I think is a bit unfair because I think the perspective for 2019 for this new technology are absolutely Amazing. There are many new technologies that are coming to market. There is delegated proof of stake, like lightning, liquid. There are many things that are super exciting and people sometimes forget that all these new technologies are very new. And you shouldn't ask too much from new technology. It's like asking to the internet in 1995 to do more than email Because 1995 like you had Hotmail and then that was it. In 2018, now you have Facebook, you have applications in your mobile, I mean. Internet has become something that is a center of our lives. So I think it's still very early for cryptocurrencies and companies should focus on building great products and great technology. Yeah. Well, Pascal, thank you so much for being here. We're really honored to have you. Even if you guys kinda stole our name. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] [ FOREIGN ] I'm Jen Wieczner. For more Balancing the Ledger come to fortune. com. We'll see you next time. [ MUSIC ]

Balancing the Ledger: Ledger President Pascal Gauthier

Tech

Ledger has sold 1.4 million Nano S hardware wallets. President Pascal Gauthier stops by Balancing the Ledger with some product updates.